On July 27, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin spoke to the Massachusetts delegation at the Democratic national convention. According to this story, he said that voters who vote for parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties are “wasting” their vote.
The Working Class Party recently submitted approximately 50,000 signatures, to qualify for the Michigan ballot. The requirement is 31,519 signatures, due July 21. See the party’s web page here. Thanks to John Anthony La Pietra for this news.
Kansas has had no independent candidates for U.S. House on the ballot since 1984. However, according to this story, independent Alan LaPolice is likely to qualify this year in the First district, which covers the western half of Kansas. Kansas law requires 5,000 signatures for independents for U.S. House. No one has ever complied with that law for U.S. House. The existing law was passed in 1990. Before 1990, the requirement was 2,500 signatures for U.S. House.
On July 27, the Nevada Secretary of State reversed an earlier decision, and said she will accept the independent presidential petition for Rocky De La Fuente. The petition had been rejected because a state law says independent presidential candidates must submit a copy of the petition blank to the Secretary of State before starting to circulate. De La Fuente had submitted a copy of his petition to the Clark County elections office, but not the Secretary of State’s office. The De La Fuente petition was circulated entirely within Clark County, which has over half the state’s population.
In May 2016, New Hampshire Representative Max Abramson changed his registration from “Republican” to “Libertarian.” In June, he filed a Declaration of Candidacy as a Libertarian Party candidate for Governor. He represents Seabrook.
New Hampshire voter registration forms have a blank line for political party choice, so any person can register into any party. However, New Hampshire election officials won’t tally such registrations unless the party is a qualified party. Thanks to Andy Craig for this news.
