The Arkansas Green Party recently submitted 1,600 signatures to be on the Arkansas ballot for President in 2016. The law requires 1,000 for that purpose.
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The United Independent Party is a ballot-qualified party in Massachusetts. However, Massachusetts requires every qualified party to do one of two things to remain ballot-qualified: (1) poll 3% for any statewide race; (2) have registration equal to 1% of the state total.
The United Independent Party, formed in 2014, does not expect to have a presidential nominee in 2016. It is only interested in Massachusetts state government issues. And in 2016, there are no other statewide races on the ballot in Massachusetts. Therefore, the party will lose its status unless it can get its registration up to approximately 40,000 members by November 2016.
The party has been working on getting more registrants, and at the end of June 2014, it had 6,100. If the party achieves its registration goal, it will be the first party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, to have met that goal. The 1% registration alternative has only existed in the law since 1990.
On July 17, History professor Allen Lichtman testified in the ongoing North Carolina trial over changes to laws that affect voting. He testified that the legislators who voted for the bill intended to reduce the participation of Black voters. See this story.
Lichtman has testified in election lawsuits in the past. In 1991 he testified in favor of the New Alliance Party, in its lawsuit against the April petition deadline for new parties in Alabama. In 2004, he testified against Ralph Nader and the Reform Party in the lawsuit over whether Nader should be on the Florida ballot.
The Longmont, Colorado Times-Call has this op-ed in favor of the National Popular Vote Plan. Colorado has not passed the plan. The op-ed, by Brian Litwin, contains an inaccurate statement. The op-ed says the electoral college was created to preserve the interests of the small-population states. Actually, historians of the Constitutional Convention have demonstrated that the concerns of low-population states were ameliorated by the provision of the Constitution giving each state two U.S. Senators. The purpose of the electoral college was to ameliorate the concerns of the slave states, most of which had very limited franchise in 1789. A popular vote for President would have found far more votes being cast by voters of free states.
On July 18, North Carolina legislative leaders decided that the 2016 presidential primary should be on March 15. Back in April 2015, the House had passed HB 457 to move that primary from February to March 8. That bill had not made any headway in the Senate.
For some reason, HB 457 will be abandoned and HB 373 will be the vehicle for the change. This story says it will soon be heard in the Senate committee.
It is somewhat extravagant for North Carolina government to pay for a March 15 presidential primary and then pay for a May 3 primary for all other office.