on August 12, both sides in the lawsuit Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, the ballot access case, asked the judge to put the lawsuit on hold until December 15, 2016. This is the case in which the judge granted injunctive relief to the Libertarian Party, putting it on the ballot this year. Although the injunction was granted, there has been no decision on whether the deadline for a new party to get on the ballot is constitutional. Both sides say it would be a waste of the court’s time to spend any more time on the case this year, because probably the legislature will improve the law next year.

The chief issue in the case is the deadline for a new party to qualify, December of the year before the election. A side issue is whether voters should be able to register into an unqualified party and have those registrations tallied.

The Asian American Journalist Association, and Asian & Pacific Islander Vote, jointly sponsored a presidential election forum on Friday, August 12. It was held at Caesar’s Palace, and lasted three and one-half hours. Gary Johnson spoke first, followed by Jill Stein. Then Bill Clinton spoke on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and Sean Reyes spoke for Donald Trump. Reyes is Attorney General of Utah. See this story.

On August 12, the Nevada Secretary of State said that the Green Party petition, which had been handed in on the June 3 deadline, did not have enough valid signatures. Clark County (where most of the signatures had been obtained) had made a similar ruling in late June. It is possible the Green Party will sue to overturn the June 3 petition deadline. The party submitted 1,200 more signatures after that deadline.

In 1992 a U.S. District Court had enjoined the deadline that was in effect back then, which was June 10. The legislature had then moved the deadline from June to July. But years later, the legislature move it to April, and then last year moved it to June.