Saskatchewan held a provincial election on April 4, 2016. All the seats were won by either the Saskatchewan Party or the New Democratic Party. Six parties participated, but the Liberals only won 3.6% of the popular vote (even though it is the governing party in Canada’s national government), and the Progressive Conservatives only won 1.3% of the popular vote. See this wikipedia article about the election results.
The New York Times of April 5 has this somewhat lengthy story about the Libertarian Party’s role in this year’s presidential election, with most of the focus on Gary Johnson. As noted here before, in the past, the New York Times has gone through an entire presidential election year without ever mentioning the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee, so this is a change.
Doug McNeil of Baltimore, Maryland, died on April 2. He was Maryland’s leading force for ballot access improvement during the last thirty years. Before 1998, Maryland had the nation’s second-worst ballot access laws for minor party and independent candidates, for office other than president. Doug was a Libertarian Party member who worked very well with independents and members of other parties. He lead Maryland activists as they successfully persuaded the legislature to make a major improvement in 1998, and then persuaded the state’s highest state court to make an even bigger improvement in 2003.
Doug was diagnosed with cancer in January 2016. Doug had a masterful knowledge of Maryland ballot access laws, and they have been among the nation’s most confusing and convoluted of any state’s laws. Doug had wonderful people skills, which paid off through the long years of lobbying the Maryland legislature.
On April 4, the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments in the Republican Party’s lawsuit over how it should nominate candidates. The state law seems to say that candidates seeking the nomination of a qualified party who don’t have much support at a party caucus can still get on a primary ballot. The method for such candidates is a petition. The Republican Party doesn’t want anyone to be able to get on its primary ballot by petition. That issue is in federal court. But the federal court asked the State Supreme Court to interpret Utah law. Specifically, the federal court wants the State Supreme Court to say whether the petition procedure is mandatory for all parties, or whether parties that don’t like it can shut out petitioning candidates. See this story.
Steve Grantham of San Diego has announced plans to create a “Trump Party” and get it on the ballot. The article seems to say the goal is to get it on the ballot in 2018. However, it is not too late for it to qualify for 2016. The deadline is July 11, 2016. A party that qualifies by that deadline can be on for President but not other office. See this story. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link.
