On April 19, Manitoba held a legislative election. See the wikipedia page about that election here. Three parties won seats: Progressive Conservative 40, New Democratic 14, Liberal 3. Three other parties participated but did not win any seats.
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On April 20, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner. The issue is the relatively new law that makes it illegal to circulate the party petition in an odd year. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law; the case is now in the First Circuit.
The Rhodes Cook Letter for March 2016 has a tally of the number of votes received by leading Democrats and Republicans in presidential primaries and caucuses this year, through March 31.
For Democrats, the tally is: Hillary Clinton 8,967,408; Bernie Sanders 6,435,176; others 291,236.
For Republicans: Donald Trump 7,866,167; Ted Cruz 5,778,761; Marco Rubio 3,445,744; John Kasich 2,824,519; Ben Carson 694,249; Jeb Bush 254,544; others 303,313.
These figures do not include these April events that have already occurred: the North Dakota Republican caucus of April 1, the Wisconsin primary of April 5, the Wyoming Democratic caucus of April 9, or the New York primaries.
The Rhodes Cook Letter is published by Rhodes Cook, who also authors America Votes every two years, the best source for election returns for federal office and gubernatorial elections. The Rhodes Cook Letter is published six times per year and costs $99. Contact the letter at PO Box 574, Annandale Va 22003.
No independent candidate for North Carolina State Senate has ever managed to qualify for a government-printed ballot. On April 20, Law Professor Eric Fink said he will try to obtain the signtures needed to run for State Senate. See this story.
The original 1915 North Carolina petition requirement for independent candidates was 10% of the last vote cast. In 1935 it was raised to 25% of the last vote cast. In 1973 the legislature lowered it to 10% of the last vote cast. In 1980 the 10% requirement was struck down, so the legislature lowered it to 2% of the number of registered voters for statewide office, but raised it to 10% of the number of registered voters for district office. In 1991 a U.S. District Court struck down the 10% for district office, in Obie v North Carolina State Board of Elections, 762 F Supp 119.
The legislature then set the district independent petition at 4% of the number of registered voters. Fink will need approximately 5,000 valid signatures. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.
On April 19, New York held several special legislative elections, including the 65th Assembly race, where the Democratic and Working Families Parties each had a strong nominee. The Democrat, Alice Cancel, beat the Working Families nominee, Yuh-Line Niou, 7,284 to 6,250. See the unofficial returns. Choose the “contest” box and flip it from president to legislature, in order to see the legislative returns.