Four candidates are eligible to receive votes in the Kansas Democratic presidential caucus: Hillary Clinton, Rocky De La Fuente, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders. See this story. Candidates paid a fee of $2,500 to qualify.
2
Virginia law says the nominees of qualified parties always appear first on general election ballots. The only qualified parties in Virginia for the past 18 years have been the Democratic and Republican Parties. In 2014 the Virginia Libertarian Party and Rob Sarvis filed a lawsuit against that policy. The U.S. District Court acknowledged that being listed first on the ballot is advantageous, but he said the state may legitimately have election laws that help the Democratic and Republican Parties relative to other parties.
The case has been appealed to the Fourth Circuit. The opening brief was filed on December 22, 2015. The case is Sarvis v Alcorn, 15-1162.
Darrell Castle, the Constitution Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008, had been seeking the party’s 2016 presidential nomination. However, he has withdrawn from the race because of health concerns.
The Santa Fe New Mexico has this story about the expected announcement from Gary Johnson that he will seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. That announcement is likely to come while Johnson is a guest on Cavuto Coast to Coast, which airs January 6 at noon eastern time and runs for two hours. The show is on Fox Business Network.
On January 5, the Oregon Secretary of State released a list of presidential candidates who will be put automatically on the presidential primary ballots of the Democratic and Republican Parties. She did not include Rocky De La Fuente. She put Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic list. She put eleven Republicans on the Republican list. See this story.
The Independent Party is entitled to its own presidential primary, but the Secretary of State did not list any names for that party. She said she was guided by polls, and wanted to include everyone at 1%. However, the law does not give her discretion to do that. The law says the Secretary of State must put candidates on the ballot automatically if that candidate is “recognized by national news media.”
Assuming the Republican primary ballot continues to list eleven names, that will be the most candidates ever on a Republican presidential primary ballot in Oregon. The previous Republican record in Oregon was 1996, when there were nine candidates.
Candidates can also get on the ballot with a petition, but it is very difficult. It requires 5,000 names of party members, but there is a distribution requirement, which requires signatures from 5% of the precincts in ten counties, plus there must be at least 1,000 from each U.S. House district.