Several newspapers in various states are sponsoring a joint forum for Republican presidential candidates on Monday evening, August 3. The newspapers invited all 17 Republicans who seem to have a genuine campaign, based on how many campaign events they have set up, and whether they have campaign offices and staff. Three of the 17 declined to participate. See this story. The candidates will not appear simultaneously; instead each one will be on the stage alone. If the event had included the candidates speaking to each other, that would have violated Republican National Committee rules, which won’t allow unsanctioned debates. The event starts at 7 p.m eastern time. Also see this story, which has a link, by which anyone may suggest topics for the moderator to raise.

Mayor Shayne Gallo of Kingston, New York, is running for re-election in a partisan election on November 3, 2015. He is a Democrat, but he has a powerful opponent in the Democratic primary in September. In case he loses the Democratic primary, he hoped to be nominated by either or both the Independence Party and the Conservative Party. He did not file to run in the Working Families Party primary.

Due to a judicial decision saying his acceptance form was a day too late for the Independence and Conservative process, he can’t expect to get their nomination. Although he could run as a write-in, it is unlikely he could win because his Republican opponent is on the ballot in the primaries of those two parties.

But, as this story explains, Mayor Gallo might get the Green Party nomination on write-in votes in the Green primary. That would not be very difficult because no one has qualified to be on the Green Party primary ballot for Mayor.

On July 31, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ruled in favor of two independent candidates seeking a place on the 2015 general election in two cities. See this story. Ohio law is very vague about who can qualify to be an independent candidate. Ohio doesn’t ask about party choice (or independent status) on voter registration forms, yet the law says no one may be an independent candidate who is “affiliated” with a party. This standard forces election administrators and state courts to look into the personal characteristics of candidates, to measure their intent. No other state has this type of ambiguity.