On May 20, Emidio “Mimi” Soltysik filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit in Soltysik v Padilla. The issue is the California law that lets some party members have their party printed on the ballot (for congress and partisan state office), but not other candidates. The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles had upheld the law last month.

On May 17, the Independent Party filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit in Independent Party v Padilla. In the 9th circuit, the case is 16-15895. The issue is whether the Independent Party will be furnished with information about how many people registered into it. The U.S. District Court in Sacramento had upheld the action of the Secretary of State. He refused to ask county election officials to determine how many registered voters the party has. The U.S. District Court had ruled that if a party named Independent Party were to become qualified, that “might” cause confusion. However, there was no evidence in the case that confusion would result. There is evidence in the case showing that eleven states have a qualified party named Independent Party on the ballot (either currently or recently) but the U.S. District Court Judge did not mention that in his opinion.

On May 20, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled against the Libertarian Party of Ohio in the last remaining claim in the party’s ballot access claim, which had been filed in 2013. Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, s.d., 2:13cv-953. That last remaining claim was the party’s contention that in 2014, when the state removed the party’s gubernatorial nominee from the primary ballot, that was selective enforcement. The law, requiring petitioners to list their employer on each petition sheet, had never before been enforced.

The 17-page opinion says that the party did not prove that the state intended to discriminate against it. The order says that much of the evidence submitted by the party doesn’t refer to state actors, just to private parties, such as officials of the John Kasich re-election campaign.

Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist, author, and expert on Social Security, has launched a write-in bid for President. He intends to file for declared write-in status in all states that have such a procedure. See this story. His web page is kotlikoff2016.com.

He doesn’t seek campaign contributions, and would probably say he is running as a write-in so that he need not spend money on ballot access petitions. He is probably the best-known person ever to run for President in the general election and yet depend entirely on write-ins in all states.

Kotlikoff was also interested in running for President in 2012, and he sought the Americans Elect nomination that year. However, Americans Elect decided not to run anyone for President in 2012.