On August 29, the Socialist Party filed paperwork to become a qualified party in Florida. The party was last on the Florida ballot in 2012 and then ceased to be recognized. The party is experienced in the process of becoming re-qualified.
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August 29 is the Wyoming petition deadline for independent candidates. Jill Stein, Evan McCmullin, and Rocky De La Fuente all submitted petitions.
UPDATE: here is a news story. It doesn’t say how many McMullin submitted.
On August 29, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to order Ohio to print “Libertarian” on the ballot next to Gary Johnson’s name. The order says that Justice Elena Kagan had referred the matter to all the justices. As a result, if Johnson receives more than 3% of the vote for President in Ohio, the party will not remain on the ballot in 2018 and 2020. If “Libertarian” were on the ballot next to his name, and he received 3% or more, the party would be on the Ohio ballot for the next four years.
On August 27, a Louisiana Republican Party state meeting entertained a motion that the party assert a right to block certain candidates from using the word “Republican” on the ballot. See this story. The proposal was not passed but may be considered at a future meeting. The Republican Party is almost certainly not able to take this step, because in Louisiana, no party has nominees for any office except President and presidential elector. All candidates run in the general election, with the label that matches their voter registration membership. If Louisiana Republicans want control over their name on ballots, they would need to reinstate partisan primaries for office other than president.
On August 29, an official in the Alabama Secretary of State’s office telephoned Rocky De La Fuente and told him that even though he has enough valid signatures to be an independent presidential candidate, he cannot be on the November ballot because he ran in the March 2016 Democratic presidential primary. However, in 1992, Alabama let Lyndon LaRouche run in the general election in 1992 even though LaRouche had run in the Alabama 1992 Democratic presidential primary, and the law has not changed in any relevant way.
Back in 1992, the Alabama sore loser law, which was then 17-7-1(c), said “The probate judge is prohibited from causing to be printed on the ballot the name of any independent candidate who was a candidate in the primary election of that year.” Today, the sore loser law is in 17-9-3(b), and says, “The probate judge may not print on the ballot the name of any independent candidate who was a candidate in the primary election of that year and the name of any nominee of a political party who was a candidate for the nomination of a different political party in the primary election of that year.”
That change, which was made in 2006, makes no difference. The 2006 change only added the sore loser law to minor party candidates, but both LaRouche and De La Fuente are independent candidates, so as to them there is no difference between the old law and the new law. The Secretary of State’s office told De La Fuente that the law was amended in 2014, but the only amendment in 2014 was to move the petition deadline from September to August.
The reason that Alabama let LaRouche run in 1992 is that the office understood that the true candidates in a presidential primary are the candidates for Delegate, and the true candidates in November are the presidential elector candidates. Those groups of people are not the same group, so the sore loser law can’t apply. States that intend sore loser laws to apply to presidential primaries usually write their sore loser laws to make a specific mention of the presidential primary. The Alabama sore loser law existed before Alabama had presidential primaries; Alabama first had a presidential primary in 1980.