On May 5, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to give injunctive relief to the Ohio Libertarian Party, in the ballot access lawsuit involving the party’s primary ballot and its statewide candidates. Justice Clarence Thomas had received the request on May 2, and he did refer the matter to the other justices, but no relief was forthcoming.

The party had also asked Justice Elena Kagan for relief earlier on May 2, but she denied relief without forwarding the matter to any other justice. The issue is the law that requires petitioners to show on each petition blank who the employer of the circulator is. The party’s statewide primary petitions had been accepted by the Secretary of State even though they didn’t have that information. But when someone challenged the petitions, the challenge succeeded.

On April 30, the Public Policy Institute of California issued this 21-page report on the California top-two law. The analysis recommends that voter choice be expanded for the November ballot, to more than just two candidates. The report says either write-in space should be restored to the November ballot for Congress and partisan state office, or else there be a petition procedure by which a candidate can get on the November ballot even if he or she didn’t place first or second in June.

The Report also points out that in the June 2012 primary, turnout was the second lowest turnout for a California statewide primary in history. The only one that was lower was the June 2008 primary, which did not have any statewide offices (the 2008 presidential primary was held in a separate primary in February).

On May 2, a Vermont legislative conference committee approved a re-write of Senate Bill 86. The new version of the bill moves the independent petition candidate deadline from June to August. The bill sets August 1 as the presidential petition deadline, and the deadline for independent candidates running for other office will be the Thursday before the primary.

The re-written bill also sets the primary date as the second Tuesday of August. Current law has the primary on the fourth Tuesday in August, and the House had wanted the primary on the first Tuesday of August. Assuming the bill passes, the 2014 independent candidate petition deadline will be August 7 and the primary will be August 12.

The Senate will vote on the new version of the bill on August 5. Assuming the revised bill passes, there will be only four states with independent presidential petition deadlines earlier than July: North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois.