On May 27, a U.S. District Court granted injunctive relief to the Maine Libertarian Party. The state must give the party credit for the 4,513 registered members it obtained last year. The law requires 5,000 registered members to be a qualified party. The party now has until July 12 to get another 487 registrants. If it does so, it will be a qualified party for purposes of the presidential election. This means the party will not need to do an independent petition to be on for President this year, assuming it does finish getting 487 more registered members. Also it means the party will be listed on voter registration cards.

On May 24, groups associated with the Michigan Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in federal court. It alleges that Michigan violated the U.S. Constitution when it repealed the straight-ticket device. Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson, e.d., 2:16cv-11844.

On May 22, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed SF 2985, which establishes presidential primaries in future years. All ballot-qualified parties could have a presidential primary. However, the date would be set by the two parties that polled the largest vote for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. If they don’t agree on a date, then the primary would be on the first Tuesday in March.

Minnesota does not have registration by party. Normally, a Minnesota voter decides in secret which party’s primary ballot to use. But for presidential primaries, voters would need to publicly ask for a particular ballot, and a record would be made.

Pesidential primary candidates would get on the ballot at the sole discretion of the political party. No other state has such a provision, although Georgia and Florida are very similar. In all three states, persons not approved by certain party or legislative leaders would have no option to get on the primary ballot.