According to this story, some of the New York voters whose registration was changed without their knowledge or consent, so that they can now not vote in the April 19 presidential primary, are about to file a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn. The story says 200 people have come forward, saying their registration was changed.
Here is an Arizona news story about the Libertarian Party’s new ballot access lawsuit, filed April 12. The story quotes several Republican legislators defending the 2015 law change that made it very difficult for Libertarians to get on the Libertarian primary ballot. They say the old law, which only required a few hundred signatures of Libertarian Party members for a candidate to get on a Libertarian primary ballot, was too easy because all candidates need to show a significant level of voter support.
The problem with that argument is that the state has already conceded the Libertarian Party itself has a modicum of support (because it constantly remains ballot-qualified, because its registration is always above two-thirds of 1% of the state total). Therefore, anyone who wins the Libertarian primary does have a modicum of support, because the party backs that person and the party has already shown it has support.
Most states don’t require any signatures for a candidate to get on a partisan primary ballot. Instead they use filing fees.
Furthermore, the purpose of petitions (whether for a general election ballot or a primary ballot) is to keep the ballot from being too crowded. But the old law already kept the Libertarian primary ballot from being crowded; it was very rare for more than one Libertarian to qualify for any particular office. So already the Libertarian primary ballot was not crowded, and there was no legitimate reason for the legislature to increase the burden.
On April 16, the Constitution Party nominated Darrell Castle for President. Thanks to Charles Deemer for this information. The vice-presidential nominee is Scott Bradley. In 2010, Bradley was the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate from Utah, and he polled 5.67%, the second-best showing ever for the Constitution Party for U.S. Senate in a race with both major parties also running.
In November 2016, the voters of Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, will vote on whether to use proportional representation in future elections for the provincial legislative body. See this story.
On April 15, filing for the Oklahoma primary for Congress, state office, and partisan county office, closed. Here is a link to the candidate list.
Thirteen Libertarians filed for legislature. Assuming none of them withdraws, this will be the highest number of minor party legislative candidates in Oklahoma since 1936 or 1934. The Libertarian Party is the only party on the ballot, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties. Other years in which the Libertarians had party status in Oklahoma are 1980, 1984, 1996, and 2000.
The number of Libertarians running for the legislature in past years has been: 1980 three; 1984 twelve; 1996 one; 2000 five. In 1984 Libertarians were permitted to nominate by convention, so it was somewhat easier than normal for candidates to come forth.
The number of Reform Party legislative candidates was: 1996 one, 1998 one, 2000 zero.
The number of American Party legislative candidates was: 1968 zero, 1970 one, 1972 two.
Before the American Party, the last third party on in Oklahoma was Prohibition, which had the following number: 1934 zero, 1936 three, 1938 five, 1940 two, 1942 one, 1944 zero.
The Socialist Party was last on in 1936 and 1934. The number of legislative candidates it had those years is unknown, but it is very likely that in 1934 at least it was higher than thirteen.
