See this story in the Virginian-Pilot, daily newspaper of the Hampton Roads area. The Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates in Virginia are continuing to campaign by charging each other with fresh accusations of ethics lapses.
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On October 15, the Arkansas Libertarian Party plans to submit approximately 16,000 signatures to become a qualified party in Arkansas again. And on October 22, the Arkansas Green Party expects to submit approximately 15,000 signatures. The state requires 10,000 valid signatures.
This is the fifth election year in a row in which the Arkansas Green Party has completed this petition, and the second for the Libertarians. Arkansas irrationally removes parties from the ballot if they don’t poll 3% for the office at the top of the ticket, every two years. Generally, minor parties can’t poll as much as 3% for President. Both parties were removed after the November 2012 election. It would be more rational for Arkansas to change the 3% vote test to any statewide nominee. Repetitive petition drives are not only exhausting for the parties, but they are expensive and burdensome for election officials as well. On the average, the cost to election administrators to check petitions is $1 per signature.
The only parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, that have polled 3% for President in the last 90 years are the Progressive Party of 1924, the American Independent Party of 1968, and the Reform Party of 1996. UPDATE: see this news story.
The Militant is the weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party. It is the only printed weekly newspaper published by any political party in the United States. A recent issue of The Militant had a news story about a hunger strike in certain California prisons. Florida prison officials have refused to allow that issue to be delivered to the 32 prisoners who subscribe to The Militant. See this story from The Militant. Florida prison officials say that if their prisoners read that issue, they may also launch a hunger strike. However, many other newspapers also covered the hunger strike.
It seems somewhat likely that, if the prison doesn’t back down, the ACLU will help The Militant to sue the prison officials.
The October 13, 2013 New York Times has this discussion on whether the election of 2014 might result in more independent and minor party candidates being elected.
California does not release a statewide registration tally during odd years, except once near the beginning of the year. But Los Angeles County keeps a running tally, and since the county has 26% of the population of California, the Los Angeles County data is significant. See the tally at this link. Scroll down.
The October 13 tally shows that during the last month, every qualified party has more registrants than it had on September 10, except for the Republican Party, although the changes are slight.
The totals for October 13 are: Democratic 2,463,594; Republican 1,032,655; American Independent 109,018; Peace & Freedom 33,169; Libertarian 26,166; Green 24,587; Americans Elect 2,478; miscellaneous and people who leave the party choice question blank 306,594; independent 853,384.
The totals for September 10 were: Democratic 2,454,773; Republican 1,032,775; American Independent 108,275; Peace & Freedom 31,838; Libertarian 25,882; Green 24,473; Americans Elect 2,471; miscellaneous and blank 290,557; independent 854,712.