Tennessee holds a presidential primary on March 1, 2016. Presidential candidates’ names appear automatically if the Secretary of State determines that they are discussed in the news media. But candidates for Delegate get on the ballot with a different procedure. For the Republican convention, anyone can appear on the ballot as a candidate for Delegate if he or she submits a petition signed by 25 voters. Any registered voter may sign; Tennessee does not have registration by party.

Candidates for delegate must say whom they are pledged to support at the convention. They certify that, if elected, they will vote for that presidential candidate on the first two rounds of voting.

Candidates for delegate to the Democratic national convention do not use this procedure; instead interested persons file with the Democratic Party, which has its own process for choosing who can run for Delegate. But Democratic candidates for Delegate also appear on the presidential primary ballot of the Democratic Party. See this story. So far, over 400 persons have filed to run for Delegate to the Republican convention. There will be 58 Republican delegates. Most of the slots are filled on a congressional district basis. The deadline for filing is December 10.

The Harvard Crimson, probably the most famous student newspaper in the United States, has this article about Jill Stein. Stein graduated from Harvard.

The Arizona state government has told the U.S. Supreme Court that it won’t file a response in Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 15-598. This is the case in which the Libertarian and Green Parties are fighting the law that says only the two largest parties should have their own checkbox on the voter registration form. The Libertarian and Green Parties are also on the Arizona ballot and they nominate by primary, just as the Democratic and Republican Parties do.

The Arizona law is especially harmful to the Green Party, because it never has enough registered members to remain ballot-qualified. Chances are, if the Arizona form mentioned the Green Party as a registration choice, after a few years Green registration would rise high enough so that it would remain on the ballot.

If the Supreme Court asks Arizona to respond, then Arizona will respond. The Court hasn’t yet set a conference date for this case.