On August 2, Donald Trump sat for an interview with a Washington Post reporter. Rick Hasen has abstracted out the part of the conversation in which Trump is asked if he wants either or both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in the debates. Trump said, “No”. See Hasen’s post here.
It is surprising that Trump says that Stein polls better than Johnson. All of the 4-way polls listed for the last few weeks at Real Clear Politics show that Johnson polls ahead of Stein.
According to this story, election officials in Maricopa County and Pima County, the two most populous counties in Arizona, say they will not enforce a new law that forbids individuals from delivering more than a handful of voted absentee ballots to the elections offices.
Texas held a run-off legislative election on August 2, for the State House, 120th district, in San Antonio. Here is a link to the county elections web page. So far, the independent candidate, Laura Thompson, is winning over her lone opponent, Democrat Lou Miller. Just now the vote is 635 to 585.
If Thompson wins, she only will be a member of the legislature for the remainder of this year, and the legislature isn’t sitting this year. She wanted to run for the regular term, but she was unable to obtain the signatures of 500 voters who had not voted in the March primary during the short window allowed. By contrast, in the special election, she didn’t need any petition, just a filing fee.
Texas has not elected anyone but Democrats and Republicans to its legislature since 1936. Thanks to Mark P. Jones for this news.
August 1 is the Arkansas deadline for independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties. Both types of petition need 1,000 signatures.
Independent presidential candidates who filed are: Rocky De La Fuente, Jim Hedges, Thomas Hoefling, and Lynn Kahn. They will have the label “independent”, even though Hedges is the Prohibition Party nominee and Thomas Hoefling is the nominee of America’s Independent Party.
Three unqualified parties who filed the presidential petition are the Constitution Party, the Green Party, and Better for America. They need not identify their presidential nominees until later in the month.
The Libertarian Party has been ballot-qualified in Arkansas since 2015. Thanks to Irv Sutley for this information.
August 1 is the deadline for Nebraska petitions for new parties and independent candidates. The only party that filed is the Marijuana Party of Nebraska. The only independent presidential candidate who filed is Jill Stein.
The Libertarian Party has been on the ballot in Nebraska starting in 2010.
