On June 15, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case. The hearing will be Thursday, June 18, at 10:30 am in Concord. The issue is the 2014 law that makes it illegal to circulate the party petition in an odd year.
Earlier this year South Dakota changed the petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party to submit a petition of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote for party status. The old deadline was March 29. The new deadline is March 1. On June 15, the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party filed a lawsuit against that deadline, Libertarian Party of South Dakota v Krebs, 4:15-cv-4111.
South Dakota is in the Eighth Circuit. In 1977 the Eighth Circuit said in MacBride v Exon, 558 F 2d 443, “It is completely unreasonable and unrealistic for a state to provide by statute that a person cannot get his name on the state’s presidential ballot as a third party candidate unless that party has qualified as a party in advance of primary elections.” Currently, South Dakota is the only state in which it is impossible for a new party to appear on the November ballot with a presidential candidate and the party label, unless that party participates in a primary. The South Dakota primary is in early June. MacBride v Exon was a Nebraska case, and the Nebraska primary was (and still is) in May.
UPDATE: here is a news story about the lawsuit.
Law Professors Joseph Fishkin and Heather Gerkin have published a scholarly paper on the current status of the national Republican Party, in which the official party structure and the Koch Brothers each have their own database of Republican Party donors, activists, and voters. The Koch Brothers’ database is superior to the party’s database. Fishkin and Gerkin conceive of the Koch Brothers as part of the national Republican Party, despite their lack of office within the party. Their paper explores the ramifications of this split between the formal party structure and the party’s influential backers. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Daily Oklahoman, largest newspaper in Oklahoma, here reports that the Libertarian Party and the Green Party will attempt to get on the 2016 ballot. The Green Party has never been on the ballot in Oklahoma, and the Libertarian Party hasn’t been on since 2000.
Counterpunch has this commentary by Scott McLarty of the Green Party. McLarty argues that the decline of parties of the left in the last part of the 20th century and so far in this century is the reason the left is in a weaker position today than it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
