The Independent Party of Oregon is a ballot-qualified party, but it doesn’t quite have enough registrants to qualify for a government primary. Instead, it nominates the way the other ballot-qualified minor parties do, either by convention, or by a primary paid for by the party itself.

The Independent Party has approximately 100,000 registered members, and it costs the party $24,000 to send a piece of postal mail to each registrant. Nevertheless, the party does such a mailing. The mailing tells the member that he or she can log in to the party’s web site, and request a primary ballot. The party pays for this with candidate filing fees. The highest fees are for statewide office, and are $3,000. The party provides for petitions in lieu of the filing fee as well.

The party will have a primary contest between the two major party candidates for Governor, Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Dennis Richardson. Oregon permits two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate, so the winner of the Independent Party primary will have the “Independent Party” label on the November ballot next to his name. For instance, if Kitzhaber wins the Independent Party primary, he will be on the November ballot as “John Kitzhaber, Democrat, Independent.” There are 38 candidates seeking Independent Party nominations for various partisan offices this year.

Edward Forchion, also known as N.J. Weedman, is suing to get on the November ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in New Jersey’s Third U.S. House district. According to this story, the Superior Court has ruled that it has no jurisdiction, and that the case can only be settled in the State Appellate Court.

Forchion submitted 200 signatures, and needs 100 valid. The local Democratic Party challenged his petition, and the result was that he was told he only has 99 valid signatures. Forchion makes two points in his lawsuit: (1) the challenge to his petition was filed six days after the petition deadline, whereas the law says plainly that challenges are due four days after the deadline; (2) election officials provided incorrect maps of the district, and if the maps he were given had been correct, he would have enough valid signatures. If he gets on the ballot, his ballot label will be “Legalize Marijuana.”

On June 21, delegates to the Montana Republican Party state convention endorsed the idea that the party should work to close its primaries. Montana has always had open primaries. See this story. The party also endorsed run-offs for general elections, when no one gets 50% in November. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.