Patty Culhane, White House correspondent for Al Jazeera, has this story about the recent Constitution Party national convention. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link.
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The Wall Street Journal has this article by Karl Rove, which is on the subject of whether Donald Trump could get on ballots as an independent if he waited until the Republican convention to begin.
The article has many factual errors. It says that Colorado requires 5,000 signatures by June 6. Actually Colorado requires no signatures, merely payment of $1,000 and a list of presidential elector candidates by August 10.
It says that Vermont requires 1,000 signatures by June 16, but actually the signatures are due August 1.
It says Rhode Island requires 1,000 signatures by June 29, but only a declaration of candidacy is due on June 29, and the signatures are not due until September 9.
It says that Florida requires signatures by July 15. Although that is true for an independent presidential candidate, Trump could easily create his own party in Florida, or use one of the many ballot-qualified minor parties that already exist, which would leave him until September 1 to need to act.
It mentions that South Carolina requires an independent petition by July 15, which is true, but doesn’t say that South Carolina, like Florida, already has several ballot-qualified parties that would probably nominate him with no need for a petition.
On April 19, Manitoba held a legislative election. See the wikipedia page about that election here. Three parties won seats: Progressive Conservative 40, New Democratic 14, Liberal 3. Three other parties participated but did not win any seats.
On April 20, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner. The issue is the relatively new law that makes it illegal to circulate the party petition in an odd year. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law; the case is now in the First Circuit.
The Rhodes Cook Letter for March 2016 has a tally of the number of votes received by leading Democrats and Republicans in presidential primaries and caucuses this year, through March 31.
For Democrats, the tally is: Hillary Clinton 8,967,408; Bernie Sanders 6,435,176; others 291,236.
For Republicans: Donald Trump 7,866,167; Ted Cruz 5,778,761; Marco Rubio 3,445,744; John Kasich 2,824,519; Ben Carson 694,249; Jeb Bush 254,544; others 303,313.
These figures do not include these April events that have already occurred: the North Dakota Republican caucus of April 1, the Wisconsin primary of April 5, the Wyoming Democratic caucus of April 9, or the New York primaries.
The Rhodes Cook Letter is published by Rhodes Cook, who also authors America Votes every two years, the best source for election returns for federal office and gubernatorial elections. The Rhodes Cook Letter is published six times per year and costs $99. Contact the letter at PO Box 574, Annandale Va 22003.