On July 12, the Socialist Workers Party said it will petition to place its nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the November 3 ballot. The nominee, Osborne Hart, needs 1,819 valid signatures by August 3, 2015.

This is the biggest petition the Socialist Workers Party has attempted since 2012, when it placed its presidential nominee on the Minnesota ballot. That petition required 2,000 signatures.

As far as is known, no other minor party or independent candidate is attempting to get on the ballot for Mayor of Philadelphia. Philadelphia has partisan city elections. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the news.

On July 22, Maine Representative Larry Dunphy announced that he has left the Republican Party and is now an independent. Maine has registration by party. Dunphy has an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News condemning the way the Republican and Democratic Parties expect their Maine state legislators to follow the wishes of party leaders. The op-ed is co-signed by Brian Jones, a former Democratic member of the legislature who was defeated for re-election after one term.

This is the seventh time this year that a state legislative seat has switched from being held by a Democrat or a Republican, to being held by an independent or minor party nominee. Dunphy will not run for re-election in 2016. Here is a news story about his switch. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the links.

The Sixth Circuit is still considering the rehearing request filed in the Michigan Socialist Party ballot access case on June 5. The case is Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, 14-1873. The Sixth Circuit had upheld the Michigan law on May 20. It is somewhat encouraging that the court hasn’t already denied the request; often requests for reconsideration are denied within two weeks or so.

The lawsuit challenges the part of the Michigan law that requires approximately twice as many signatures for a new party to get on, compared to the number of votes needed for an old party to remain on. For 2016 a new party needs 31,519 signatures, but in 2016 parties will only need 16,491 votes to remain on. The Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Natural Law Parties are already on.

Erard is a pro se litigant, so he can only represent himself. Therefore the Socialist Party is not a co-plaintiff, but the court has never suggested that Erard (a past Socialist Party nominee for public office) has a standing problem.