Jon Keyser, one of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Colorado, is on the August primary ballot. However, his spot is being challenged by activists who say they have identified ten voters whose signatures are on the petition, but who say they didn’t sign it. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Ever since 1962, the California Secretary of State has been issuing a book titled “Report of Registration”. Ever since 1974, it has included registration data not only for the qualified parties, but for all the political bodies. A “political body” is a group that has told the Secretary of State that it is trying to qualify by obtaining enough registrations. The purpose of including the data in the book is to help these groups know how much progress they are making.
On May 12, the California Secretary of State issued his Report of Registration as of April 8, 2016, but the book, for the first time ever, omits any data for some of the political bodies. The Secretary of State’s web page lists the parties attempting to qualify, but three of the four of them are not mentioned in this Report. Instead, the Report mentions some political bodies that had been trying to qualify by January 2016, but which failed to do so, so they are no longer political bodies. They may re-file, but they are too late to qualify for the June 2016 primary, and any filing they make now would be either for the 2016 presidential election, or for the 2018 election.
Slate has this interesting interview with Nicholas Sarwark, national chair of the Libertarian Party. Sarwark explains the Libertarian Party presidential nomination process.
Frank Fahrenkopf of the Commission on Presidential Debates is quoted in this article in The Hill as saying that it isn’t fair for general election presidential polls to only ask about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The Guardian, one of Great Britain’s leading newspapers, has this long article about the Prohibition Party and Jim Hedges, its presidential nominee this year. The story doesn’t mention that Great Britain also once had a thriving Prohibition Party, and the only time Winston Churchill ever lost an election, it was to a nominee of the Prohibition Party of Great Britain.
The story is erroneous when it says that Hedges’ two election victories for Township Assessor in Pennsylvania are the only instances in which the Prohibition Party has won any partisan elections since the 1920’s. The party won over 100 victories in partisan elections during the 1940’s and 1950’s, mostly in Kansas, but also some in Indiana, Michigan, and Oklahoma. The most important offices won in these partisan elections was County Clerk and Sheriff. Thanks to Phil Huckelberry for the link.
