On March 16, the individual who had challenged John Kasich’s ballot access petition in Pennsylvania withdrew his challenge. Therefore, Kasich is on the ballot. See this story. Thanks to the commenters who alerted me to this story.
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Late in the day on March 16, the U.S. Supreme Court asked attorneys for Montana’s Secretary of State to respond to the Republican Party’s request for relief from the open primary. This shows that the Court is taking the Republican Party’s lawsuit seriously. The Republican Party of Montana objects to being forced to use an open primary, because the party says Democrats are voting in the Republican primary. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
This CNBC analysis looks at the question of whether open primaries are better for Donald Trump than closed primaries are.
The article would be better if it acknowledged that there are three types of presidential primaries: open, semi-closed, and closed. Semi-closed primaries are primaries that allow independents to choose any party’s primary ballot, but won’t let members of one party choose another party’s primary ballot.
By contrast, open primaries let all voters have a free choice of any primary ballot. Reporters often don’t understand the three types of presidential primaries. The confusion is made worse by people who use the term “open primary” when they mean a blanket primary or a top-two primary. However, there are no presidential primaries that are top-two or blanket.
Bill Lawsrence Online, a blog about Pennsylvania politics, has this article about the question of whether Governor John Kasich will be on the Pennsylvania presidential primary ballot. That primary is April 26, so the matter must be settled very soon.
The Third Circuit will hear Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes on Wednesday, April 13, in Philadelphia. The U.S. District Court in this case had invalidated Pennsylvania’s system of putting petitioning groups at risk of paying as much as $110,000 in court costs if they file a petition which is found to be invalid. Pennsylvania then appealed that decision. It would be valuable for minor party activists to attend this court hearing. The location is the federal courthouse in Philadelphia at 6th and Market Streets. The courtroom is on the 19th floor. The hearing is at 9 a.m.
The judges will be Thomas Ambro, a Clinton appointee; Cheryl Ann Krause, an Obama appointee; and D. Brooks Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee. Judge Smith seemed sympathetic to minor parties in another ballot access case in Pennsylvania in 2006, Rogers v Cortes, 460 F 3d 455. That case upheld the number of signatures needed for minor parties to get on the statewide ballot in 2006, and the vote as 3-0. But at least Judge Smith added, in footnote 8, that it was possible that Pennsylvania’s law requiring a party to have 15% of the registration in order to be on the ballot automatically might be unconstitutional. But, as he said, in the Rogers case the parties weren’t challenging that law. The footnote is somewhat unusual because Judge Smith didn’t write the opinion; the judge who did write the opinion said in footnote 8 that Judge Smith wanted that point to be made.