The U.S. District Court Judge who is hearing the Ohio Libertarian Party primary ballot access has requested that the Ohio Republican Party state chair testify, presumably on Monday, March 17. Probably the testimony will try to determine the links between the Republican Party and the three challengers who challenged the Libertarian statewide primary petitions.
This Philadelphia Weekly story says that Jo Ellen Litz, a candidate for Governor in this year’s Pennsylvania Democratic primary, has failed to obtain the 2,000 valid signatures she needed to get on the primary ballot. As the story mentions, last week at a forum, in response to a question, she said current Pennsylvania ballot access requirements for minor parties and independent candidates should not be eased.
On March 12, a Subcommittee of the Tennessee House Local Government Committee passed HB 958, which is authored by Representative Jason Powell (D-Nashville). The bill lowers the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (over 40,000 signatures) to exactly 2,500 signatures. A group that submitted that petition would remain ballot-qualified for two elections.
A similar bill in the Senate, SB 1091, has a hearing in the Senate State and Local Government Committee on February 18.
The Nevada Green Party has nominated David Gibson for Governor, and Tim Reinhardt for Secretary of State. They are the first Green Party nominees in Nevada since 2010. The party did not appear on the 2012 ballot. In order to get back on the ballot, the party will need 9,738 valid signatures by April 11.
In 1986, the Libertarian Party defeated Nevada’s April petition deadline in U.S. District Court, and the state did not appeal, and moved the deadline for newly-qualifying parties to June. In 1992, a U.S. District Court enjoined that June petition deadline, in a case filed by the New Alliance, Natural Law, and Populist Parties. The legislature then moved the deadline to July. However, in recent years, the legislature has moved the deadline back to April.
Nevada currently has four ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Independent American (which is affiliated with the national Constitution Party). UPDATE: here is a newspaper story that summarizes candidate filings for the statewide offices.
Arkansas News has this story about the lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court, Moore v Martin. The case challenges the March petition deadline for non-presidential independents that the 2013 session of the legislature passed. The case was filed on February 6. So far, no briefs in the case have been filed.
