On August 24, Rocky De La Fuente filed a federal lawsuit against the South Dakota Secretary of State, over whether his independent presidential petition has enough valid signatures. The state said only 57% of his signatures are valid, which is unusually low in South Dakota, which has a high rate of voter registration.

The state did not check all the signatures; it relied on a random sample. The case is De La Fuente v Krebs, 3:16cv-3035. It is assigned to Judge Roberto Lange, an Obama appointee. The judge has already set a hearing date, Tuesday, August 30, at 1 p.m.

August 20 was the Delaware deadline for parties to finish their registration drive, to be qualified parties in Delaware. The state requires 653 registered members and the Green Party had slipped below that number earlier this year. But the party then increased its registration to 662.

The American Delta Party put on a last-minute voter registration drive, and submitted approximately 1,000 registration cards. But because Delaware does not permit members of one party to switch their registration to another party during the months before a primary, only the new voters counted. Therefore, the American Delta Party now only has 322 registered voters, not enough to qualify for the 2016 election. The Delaware primary is September 13, the last primary in the nation.

The parties that were already qualified in Delaware are Democratic, Independent, Libertarian, and Republican.

On August 25, the Alabama Secretary of State determined that all three independent presidential petitions are valid. They are for Rocky De La Fuente, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. The deadline was August 18, and 5,000 are required.

Alabama has not had any ballot-qualified parties statewide, other than Democratic and Republican, since November 2002. All three candidates will be listed as “independent.”