Earlier this month, Minnesota minor parties created an informal group to work together on ballot access problems, and last week the group met with Secretary of State Steve Simon. The meeting went well and it is likely that Secretary Simon will arrange to have ballot access improvement bills introduced in the 2016 legislature. Minnesota has historically been hospitable to minor parties, and yet ironically Minnesota is one the twelve or thirteen states that has no ballot-qualified parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Other states with no statewide ballot-qualified parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties are Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and Washington. Tennessee is ambiguous and a court will decide whether the Constitution and Green Parties are on the ballot.

Mark E. Andersen has this story on Daily Kos, about parties that he believes will have a presidential nominee in 2016, or which already have one.

TIME Magazine’s August 24, 2015 issue has a story, “The Knives Come Out for Donald Trump, but he’s not going anywhere.” It says, “Mounting an independent campaign would require Trump to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to get on ballots in 50 states, which would mean an investment of at least double the more than $10 million Trump has earmarked for his candidacy.” Thanks to Oliver Hall for this news.