Presidential primary filing has now closed in fifteen states. In every Republican presidential primary so far, there are at least twelve candidates on the ballot. That is a stark difference from the past. If one looks at the previous election years in which a Republican president was not running for re-election, there were always some Republican presidential primaries with many fewer candidates. Examples: in 2012, Virginia had two; in 2008, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Oregon had two; in 2000, D.C., Indiana, New Jersey, and Oregon had two; in 1996, Arkansas, D.C., Indiana, New Jersey, and New York had three; in 1988, New Jersey had one; in 1980, Ohio had two.

Of course, in the states in which filing hasn’t yet closed, chances are there will be some states with fewer than twelve, as candidates drop out. The last state in which the list of candidates will be set (for Republicans) is South Dakota, where the date is March 29, 2016.

The Alabama Secretary of State has developed a habit this year of releasing a press release when any Republican or Democratic presidential candidate announces a visit to Alabama. See here for the Secretary’s press release concerning Ted Cruz, and here for the Secretary’s press release concerning Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio. One wonders if the Secretary of State puts out press released when presidential candidates who are running outside the two major parties visits Alabama.

Michigan says candidates discussed in the news media automatically appear on presidential primary ballots. Also, candidates may qualify by petition. The petition requirement is one-half of 1% of that party’s last general election presidential vote.

Rocky De La Fuente did not get put on the Michigan presidential primary ballot automatically, so he circulated a petition, which was submitted earlier this month. He needs 12,823 valid signatures and he submitted 20,166. Michigan does not have registration by party, so any registered voter may sign. See this story, which says that if he qualifies, he will be the first presidential candidate in history to get on a Michigan presidential primary ballot by petition.