On Saturday, September 5, Deez Nuts (alias Brady Olson) appeared at the Minnesota Independence Party’s booth at the Minnesota state fair. That was good for some publicity for the party. Even the Washington Post took note, as this column attests.
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Free & Equal is hosting a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday evening, September 19, in Los Angeles. The rally will include a keynote address by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States. See the Free & Equal website announcement here. Free & Equal promotes election changes that are fair to all candidates, not just the Democratic and Republican nominees. In 2012 Free & Equal hosted the only televised general election debate that included any candidates other than President Obama and Mitt Romney. Free & Equal is already planning similar debates in 2016.
Rob Horowitz, adjunct professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, writes here that if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, it is plausible that a strong candidate will run outside the two major parties.
This article summarizes the lack of activity so far in the North Carolina legislature, over when the presidential primary should be and when the primary for other office should be. The legislature still hasn’t passed a budget, which distracts it from issues like the primary date. If nothing is done, the presidential primary will be in February but if the national party rules are followed, North Carolina will lost most of its delegates to both major party conventions.
The only ballot-qualified party in North Carolina other than the two major parties is the Libertarian Party. It nominates by primary.
Adding to the complexity is that fact that the North Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the state’s U.S. House and legislative district boundaries on August 31, and the Court may invalidate some of the districts. If that happens, it will take time to redraw new lines. See this story, toward the bottom.
For the 2016 presidential election, only six states require more than 25,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot, if one looks at the easiest method to get on the ballot for an independent presidential candidate or the nominee of an unqualified party.
Those six states are California, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. Illinois requires exactly 25,000.
No one knows exactly what the Pennsylvania 2016 requirement will be, but in both 2008 and 2012 it was less than 25,000. The 2016 number will be determined by the turnout in the November 2015 statewide judicial election. It is also somewhat likely that the Pennsylvania law will be liberalized by the legislature this year.
By contrast, in 1992 there were ten states in which there was no way onto the ballot without a petition or registration drive of more than 25,000. Those four additional states were Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.