In Illinois, presidential primary petitions need their own petition of 3,000 signatures. And if they want to elect delegates, separate petitions are needed in each U.S. House district. According to this story, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich failed to file enough valid signatures in six of the eighteen districts.
Also, an individual named William K. Graham of Glen Ellyn has filed a challenge to the Illinois Marco Rubio petition.
On January 12, the Vermont Secretary of State said ten Republican presidential candidates qualified for the Republican primary, and four Democrats qualified for the Democratic primary. See the list here.
Never before had more than seven candidates qualified for a Vermont Republican presidential primary.
The Progressive Party and Liberty Union Party are eligible for a presidential primary as well, but no one filed for those parties. Those two parties are still free to nominate a presidential candidate for the general election ballot. Generally the Progressive Party does not participate in presidential elections, although it did nominate Ralph Nader in 2000.
On January 5, Level the Playing Field, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party, filed an amended complaint in the lawsuit concerning presidential debates. The amended complaint was needed because only in December 2015 did the FEC formally deny the complaint filed against the Commission on Presidential Debates by the two political parties, so the new complaint was needed to reflect that.
The U.S. Supreme Court conference of Friday, January 22, will consider Erard v Johnson, the Michigan Socialist Party’s ballot access case. The issue is Michigan law that requires newly-qualifying parties to show approximately twice as much support to get on the ballot, as old parties must show to remain on.
However, the January 22 conference date may simply decide whether the case was timely filed. There is a dispute as to whether it was filed in time. The case number at this point is 15M76.
On January 11, the American Independent Party asked the California Secretary of State to list these twelve candidates on its presidential primary ballot: Lawrence Beliz, Wiley Drake, Brian Henry, Tom Hoefling, Rex Kafo, J. R. Myers, Walter Niyakik, Robert Ornelas, George Peabody, Robert S. Peters, Robert Sisilo, and Donald Trump.
California law says presidential primary candidates mentioned in the news media should automatically be placed on ballots. Because the news media typically doesn’t cover minor party presidential primary nomination contests very well, if at all, the tradition in California and certain other states is that election officials simply ask the minor party which presidential candidates to list. However, that tradition was disrupted in California in 2012, when the former Secretary of State, Deborah Bowen, refused to follow the suggestions of the American Independent Party and the Peace & Freedom Party.
The AIP has information that Donald Trump is willing to be listed on the AIP primary ballot. The AIP lets independent voters vote in its presidential primary, but the Republican Party of California does not. The AIP says now independent voters will be able to choose an AIP ballot and express support for Trump in that manner.
As far as is known, no presidential candidate has run simultaneously in the presidential primary of two different parties in the same state. However, there is no law against it, if the candidate is willing. California and approximately 24 other states do permit two parties to jointly nominate the same presidential candidate in the general election. The last instances in California of two parties running the same presidential nominee in the general election were in 1940 and 1928.
