Florida is the only state in which the filing deadline to file as a write-in for president in the general election is earlier than the deadline for a new party to get on the ballot for President. The Florida write-in filing deadline was July 12. This year, six independent presidential candidates and one minor party candidate filed to have write-ins counted.

The minor party nominee is Zoltan Istvan of the Transhumanist Party. Istvan lives in Mill Valley, Califoria.

The six independents are: Laurence J. Kotlikoff of Brookline, Massachusetts, a prominent economist; Richard Duncan of Aurora, Ohio, who usually gets on the ballot in Ohio but no other state; Cherunda Fox of Detroit, Michigan; Samuel Tabor of Mobeetie, Texas; Tony Valdivia of San Antonio, Texas; and Andrew Basiago of Charlotte, North Carolina. Basiago claims to have traveled back in time; see this story.

On July 16, the West Virginia Green Party (which is named the Mountain Party) nominated Charlotte Pritt for Governor, and she accepted. In 1996 she was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of West Virginia. She lost the 1996 general election with 45.8% of the total vote cast. The Republican who defeated her in 1996, Cecil Underwood, had himself also been elected Governor in 1956. See this story.

On July 15, independent candidate Bob Perls filed a lawsuit in state court, arguing that the number of signatures needed for independent candidates in New Mexico violates the state Constitution. The New Mexico Constitution says, “All elections shall be free and open, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.”

Perls is a candidate for Public Regulation Commission. If he doesn’t win his lawsuit, only one candidate, a Democrat, will be on the November ballot in his district. The law required him to get 3,643 signatures. Democrats in that district needed 750 signatures of registered Democrats to get on the primary ballot; Republicans needed 450; nominees of qualified parties that nominate by convention need 1,250 signatures and any registered voter may sign for them.

A similar lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2014, Parker v Duran, but a U.S. District Court refused to strike down the law. In some states, including New Mexico, the State Constitution has an explicit protection for the right to vote that does not exist in the U.S. Constitution. The case is Perls v State of New Mexico, Santa Fe County District Court. Perls was once in the state legislature. See this story.