This TV news story says that an independent voter in Rochester, Minnesota, has launched a campaign to ease Minnesota ballot access laws for independent candidates. His organization, Open the Ballot Minnesota”, wants to (1) legalize electronic signatures; (2) decrease the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties who want to run for legislature: (3) expand the absurdly cramped two-week petitioning period for non-presidential petitions.
On July 1, Columbia Journalism Review published an interview with Tucker Carlson. See it here. In the last fourth, he talks about doing everything he can to start a new political party.
According to this story, the Lincoln Party has enough valid signatures to appear on the statewide Indiana ballot this year. This is the first time a midterm minor party or independent candidate statewide petition has succeeded in Indiana since 1994. As to presidential years, there was a successful statewide petition in 2024, done by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an independent presidential candidate.
On July 1, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee hassed AB 1539. It requires all presidential candidates, even write-in candidates, to certify that they are not in violation of the 22nd Amemdment (the part of the U.S. Constitution that has term limits for presidents). Here is the text.
On July 2, a Florida state trial court ruled that Libertarian Addison Liberty Patrick should remain on the ballot for city council in Jacksonville, Florida. The Republican Party had sued to keep her off the ballot, because she hasn’t been a registered Libertarian for the past year. However, the judge said the law on duration of party membership doesn’t apply to Jacksonville city elections, in which party labels do appear on the ballot, but parties don’t have nominees. Republican Executive Committee of Duval County v Patrick,Duval Co., 2026-CA-4155. See this story.
