Better for America, the group of anti-Trump conservatives, had filed a petition to be a qualified party in New Mexico, but the Secretary of State determined that it did not have enough signatures. It needed 2,565 valid signatures and was approximately 140 signatures short. The group tried to show that it really did have enough valid signatures, but did not do so.
The only other state in which Better for America submitted a party petition was in Arkansas. That petition is still being checked.
The Washington Secretary of State has determined that the petitions of five presidential candidates are valid: those of the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Socialism & Liberation, and Socialist Workers Parties. The Secretary of State rejected independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente. He probably had enough valid signatures, but he didn’t give notice before starting the petition drive.
According to this story, the Nebraska Secretary of State has ruled that the Marijuana Party doesn’t have enough signatures for party status.
On August 5, independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente asked the Maryland State Board of Elections to extend the petition deadline for independent candidates from August 1 to August 23. The rationale is that the Board changed the number of signatures from 40,603 to 10,000 on July 29, 2016. But this change was no help to any independent candidate this year, because it came so late.
On August 5, the North Carolina Democratic Party, Common Cause, and many voters, filed a federal lawsuit against the North Carolina Board of Elections, charging that the current boundaries for U.S. House elections are an unconstitutional gerrymander. Common Cause v Rucho, m.d., 1:16v-1026.
