January 26 is the deadline for presidential primary candidates to file petitions in Indiana. Indiana requires 4,500 signatures. Eleven Republicans and four Democrats filed petitions. The signatures will now be checked.

The four Democrats are: Clinton, De La Fuente, O’Malley, and Sanders.

The eleven Republicans are: Bush, Carson, Christie, Cruz, Fiorina, Huckabee, Kasich, Paul, Rubio, Santorum, and Trump.

Assuming all petitions are valid, this will easily be the most crowded Republican presidential primary ballot in Indiana history. The previous record for Republicans in Indiana was only four names. The number has been low in the past because Indiana has among the nation’s most difficult presidential primary petition requirements, and also because the primary is in May, later than most. Indiana has been holding presidential primaries starting in 1956.

Charles Wheelan, founder of the Centrist Project, writes here in U.S. News that the U.S. needs a multi-party system. The article is focused on Michael Bloomberg, and Wheelan makes his larger point toward the end of the article.

On January 26, U.S. District Court Yvette Kane will hear Benezet Consulting v Cortes, m.d., 1:16cv-74. The hearing is at 9:30 a.m. in Harrisburg. The issues are whether the Pennsylvania ballot access laws that were struck down last year for minor party and independent candidates should also be struck down for petitions to get on a primary ballot.

The three laws struck down last year in Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele were: (1) the ban on out-of-state circulators; (2) the ban on a voter signing two petitions for the same office; (3) the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized.