The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon, has this op-ed by Sal Peralta, Secretary of the Independent Party. The party recently obtained enough registrations to qualify for its own government-administered primary. Generally, minor parties in Oregon nominate by convention, although as the op-ed explains, the Independent Party has been conducting its own primaries at its own expense in the recent past.

Other states that now have a ballot-qualified party called the Independent Party are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, and Hawaii. States that had a ballot-qualified party with that name in the last forty years are Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah. At any time, anyone is free to complete the paperwork to have the Independent Party recognized in Louisiana; that just takes someone to pay a fee to the state of $1,000.

The Arizona Secretary of State has posted this January 1, 2015 registration data. The data shows that the Green Party has 5,051 registrants. This is the first Green registration tally in Arizona since the October 1, 2013 tally, when the Greens had 5,601 registrants. The state had stopped releasing Green registration data because the party had gone off the ballot, but elections officials did acknowledge that many registered voters continued to be Green registrants. By contrast, some states forcibly convert minor party registrants into independent voters when the party goes off the ballot, without even asking the voter. States that do this are Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Oklahoma (when a party goes off the ballot in Oklahoma, all its members are converted to independents, but then they are permitted to re-register back into that same party, a policy that is senseless).

The new tally also shows that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have each lost registrations since the November 2014 tally, but the Libertarian and Americans Elect totals, and the number of independent voters, have increased since November 2014. The link shows not only current data, but data from November 2014 and January 2014.

On February 5, eight voters who reside in New York’s U.S. House District Eleven filed a federal lawsuit against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, over the Governor’s failure to call a special congressional election. The seat has been empty since January 5, 2015, the date Congressman Michael Grimm’s resignation was effective.

The case is Rossito-Canty v Cuomo, e.d., 1:15cv-568. It was assigned to Judge Jack B. Weinstein and has a hearing February 13. It seems likely that the Governor will now simply set dates for a special election, rather than fight the lawsuit. The Eleventh District is centered on Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, and was the only New York city district in November 2014 to elect a Republican to the U.S. House. Thanks to Frank Morano, who is one of the voter plaintiffs, for this news. UPDATE: this news story describes each plaintiff.