On November 21, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, s.d., 2:13cv-953. The issue in the lawsuit at this point is whether SB 193, passed in late 2013, which rewrote the definition of “political party”, is constitutional.

One of the Libertarian Party’s contentions is that the 2013 law violates the Ohio Constitution, which seems to say that all parties must nominate by primary. The federal court can only involve itself in this issue if the federal court rules that the state waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity. That is why so much of this brief concerns the Eleventh Amendment. Thanks to Steve Linnabary for the link.

Here is a list of candidates who filed to run for office in Chicago’s non-partisan February 2015 election. There are three citywide offices: Mayor, City Clerk, and Treasurer. For City Clerk, only two candidates filed; for Treasurer, only one candidate. Candidates for each citywide office needed 12,500.

All petitions in Illinois are deemed valid, unless anyone challenges. Even a petition that obviously doesn’t have enough signatures is acceptable if there is no challenge. The list of candidates posted above will almost certainly shrink after challenges are filed and adjudicated.

Zoltan Istvan said last month that he intends to form the Transhumanist Party, and to be its presidential candidate. In California, groups that wish to qualify for the ballot must notify the Secretary of State. Upon receiving the notification, the Secretary of State asks county election officials to keep a tally of how many voters register into the group. The group becomes qualified if at least one-third of 1% of the registered voters have joined. So far, the Transhumanist Party has not registered, even though Istvan lives in California.

See this interview with Istvan. Also, see this wikipedia page about Istvan. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.