Liberal Party is Only Minor Party to Appear on Pennsylvania Statewide Office Ballot in 2025

Pennsylvania holds two statewide elections for judicial office in November 2025. The only minor party or independent candidate on the ballot is the Liberal Party’s nominee for Superior Court, Daniel Wassmer. He needed 5,000 signatures. The challenge period has passed and no one challenged his petition.

Pennsylvania also has some statewide retention elections for other judicial posts, but they aren’t candidate-versus-candidate elections.

If Wassmer gets a vote total of 2% of the winning candidate’s vote, the Liberal Party will meet the state’s pinched definition of a qualified party. A group that meets that definition gets certain advantages, but not automatic ballot access generally. Instead it gets automatic ballot access in special elections, and is listed as a choice on the voter registration form. Currently the only third party with that status in Pennsylvania is the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party will keep that status until November 2026 even though it isn’t running in any 2025 statewide judicial elections.

Arizona Green Party and No Labels Party Each Nominate Candidates for Special U.S. House Election

Arizona is holding a special election for the vacant Seventh District U.S. House seat on September 23, 2025. Each qualified party had its own special primary on July 15, 2025. The Green Party and the No Labels Party each nomianted someone by write-in vote in their own primaries. The Libertarian Party also had a write-in candidate in its primary, but the person who got the most votes in the Libertarian primary can’t be on the September 23 ballot because the rules are different for the Libertarian Party.

The Green Party and the No Labels Party each petitioned in 2024, so they are considered “new” parties. “New” parties can nominate by write-in very easily. Whoever gets the most votes in their primaries is nominated, regardless of how few write-ins they received. The Green Party winner got 42 write-ins and the No Labels Party candidate got one write-in.

But the Libertarian Party is not considered a new party, because it has been continuously qualified since 2000. So write-in candidates in its primary need a large number of write-ins to be nominated.

Here are the election results for the July 15, 2025 primary.

U.S. District Court Judge in Maryland Converts Birthright Citizenship Lawsuit Into a Class Action and Again Enjoins Presidential Trump’s Order

On August 7, U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Boardman, a Biden appointee, converted CASA Inc. v Trump, 8:25cv-201, into a class action. This is the birthright citizenship lawsuit that the U.S. Supreme Court had been involved in. In this lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down nationwide injunctions issued by U.S. District Courts unless either the case has been filed by a state, or the case is a class action.

On remand, the U.S. District Court converted the case into a class action and then again enjoined the Presidential order on birthright citizenship. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

Oregon Constitution Party Wins Procedural Win in Lawsuit over Voter Registration Records

On August 5, U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane, an Obama appointee, issued an opinion in Judicial Watch v Griffin-Valade, 6:24cv-1783. The issue is whether Oregon is failing to keep its voter registration list up-to-date, something each state is required to do under the 1993 federal Voter Registration law. The judge ruled that the Constitution Party is the only plaintiff that has standing to carry on the lawsuit. The other organization in the lawsuit, Judicial Watch, does not have standing, according to the decision. The case will now proceed to the merits.

The judge agreed that the Constitution Party is harmed by inaccurate voter registration records. All qualified parties in Oregon must keep registration of at least one-tenth of 1% and must pass the 1% vote test as well, to stay on the ballot. Parties that have registration of one-third of 1% don’t need to worry about the vote test.