This story says the Montana Republican Party is so short of funds, it no longer has an office. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.
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This Times of Israel article has interesting information about the Canadian election of October 19, and whether Canada will switch to either Proportional Representation or Instant Runoff Voting in the next 18 months. The Canadian governing party, the Liberal Party, promised to study all forms of election reform and enact something within 18 months, or at least put a proposal on the ballot for a referendum.
The article also has interesting data about the recent election, including a map of Canada that shows which party carried each House of Commons district, although of course maps without special features can’t reflect urban areas very well.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has existed starting in 1985. It is a loose coalition of nationally-organized minor parties and other groups that support fair play for independent candidates and minor parties. Recently the Prohibition Party re-joined the COFOE board. The other members are the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Reform, and Socialist Parties; Fairvote; and CUIP.
The Prohibition Party had also been on the board in the past. COFOE obtains small donations from many individuals, and uses most of the money to help pay for lawsuits that benefit independent candidates, and sometimes lawsuits that benefit minor parties. Individual members of COFOE receive a free copy of Ballot Access News.
This year, COFOE donated $2,000 to the plaintiffs in the Alabama lawsuit that challenged the March petition deadline. If COFOE had more revenue, it could help more lawsuits. To see COFOE minutes of past annual board meetings, see www.cofoe.org.
On October 24, the Arkansas Libertarian Party, the only ballot-qualified party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, held a nominating convention in North Little Rock. The party nominated candidates for U.S. Senate, all four U.S. House seats, ten legislative seats, and eight county offices.
A law passed this year says that parties that nominate by convention must choose all their 2016 nominees (except presidential elector, president and vice-president) by November 2, 2015. No state has ever before required any type of political party to choose its nominees for a November even-year election in the odd year before that election. The party filed a lawsuit against the deadline on October 14, 2015. The state hasn’t responded to the lawsuit yet. Arkansas parties that nominate by primary don’t choose their nominees until March 2016.
If the lawsuit wins, the party will hold a second nominating convention and nominate for more offices.
Louisiana held its election for all statewide offices on Saturday, October 24. The two independents in the State House were re-elected. Jerome “Dee” Richard of the 55th district was re-elected unanimously because no one filed against him. Terry Brown of the 22nd district was re-elected, defeating a Republican by 6,627 to 6,026.
The only minor party candidates for state office were Green Party member Adrian Juttner for Agriculture Commissioner, and Libertarian Party member Jason France for State Board of Education, district six. Juttner polled 36,180 votes (3.49%) against a Republican and two Democrats. France polled 15,424 votes (11.3%) against three Republicans.
Juttner polled the largest vote ever received by a Green Party candidate in Louisiana. He was the first Green to run for statewide office in Louisiana other than President. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page showing election returns.
In some races, no one got 50%, and there will be a runoff. So far, the Republican Party gained one seat in the House and the Democratic Party gained one seat in the State Senate.