On February 17, the Elmore County, Alabama Circuit Court ruled that Andre Harrison may be on the November 2016 ballot as an independent candidate for County School Superintendent, if he has enough valid signatures. Harrison is the incumbent and had been elected in 2012 as a Republican. But he was kept off the March 2016 Republican primary ballot on a technicality.

Therefore, he petitioned to be an independent candidate, but his opponent claimed that Harrison is a “sore loser”, because he had filed for the Republican primary. But the court ruled that a “sore loser” is someone who actually appeared on a primary ballot and was defeated in that primary. The case is Enslen v Harrison, cv-2016-9. See this article, which has a copy of the opinion.

On February 17, the New Mexico State Senate passed HB 138 by 24-16. It says if a citizen will be age 18 by the time of the general election, he or she can register to vote in the primary, even though the person would only be age 17 at the time of the primary. The bill had passed the House on February 8 by 41-26. The bill would not take effect until 2017. See this story.

U.S. District Court John Woodcock, Jr., will hear the Maine Libertarian Party ballot access case on March 31 at 10 a.m. He might have set an earlier date, but the state chairman of the party is not in Maine during the first half of March, and he will be a witness. The case is Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 2:16cv-2.