The Tennessee Secretary of State has determined that Rocky De La Fuente has enough valid signatures to be on the ballot as an independent candidate for president. Many of the other petitions are still being checked. The state will be finished by Thursday, August 25.
On the evening of August 22, the Ohio Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put Gary Johnson and Bill Weld on the ballot as Libertarians, rather than putting them on the ballot with no label whatsoever. Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted. There is no U.S. Supreme Court number yet.
The party’s filing says, “Assuming Johnson/Weld were to be certified as an independent ticket and survive official protests, it (unlike the established parties’ presidential tickets) will still not represent LPO as a political party, will not be listed as the ‘Libertarian’ ticket on Ohio’s ballot, and cannot meet Ohio’s 3% vote test on behalf of LPO in order to win for it qualified party status in Ohio in future elections.”
Ohio still hasn’t finished checking Johnson’s independent petition. The party filed this appeal on August 22 because the Sixth Circuit had again denied any relief that same day.
On August 23, the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office determined that Jill Stein’s independent presidential petition has enough valid signatures. The office is still working on several other presidential petitions.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has finished individually reviewing 13,000 applications from ex-felons who want to register to vote. See this story. He had originally made a blanket approval, but the State Supreme Court said he must study each individual application. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Tennessee petition deadline for independent presidential candidates is August 18. The Secretary of State has already determined that the Evan McMullin petition did not have enough signatures. See this story. Thanks to Bradley for the link.
