On February 6, Jill Stein spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to say she is exploring whether to seek the Green Party presidential nomination. That attracted a good amount of publicity. However, many of the stories had factual errors. The Bloomberg story misspelled Ralph Nader’s surname as “Nadar”. National Public Radio said if Stein runs, that would be only the second Green Party presidential run. Here is one of the more accurate stories. The Boston Globe story said she was on the ballot in 2012 in “more than 30 states”, which is true, but a better story would have been more precise, and would have said she was on in 36 states plus the District of Columbia. Here is a better story from The Times of Israel.

None of the news stories mentioned that the Green Party is already on the ballot for 2016 in states containing 55% of the national electorate, and this percentage will increase as the party completes more petition drives during 2015 and 2016.

Utah has been the only state in which it is impossible for a candidate to get on a partisan primary ballot unless that party’s caucus gives that candidate substantial support before the primary. In 2014 the legislature passed SB 43 which sets up a procedure for a candidate to run in a primary, even if he or she doesn’t show substantial support at an earlier caucus.

However, on February 6, the Senate Government Operations & Political Subdivisions Committee passed two bills that would undo what the legislature did in 2014. SB 43 postpones the new system until after the 2016 election, and SJR2 would repeal the new system.

Idaho’s first presidential primaries were held in 1976. Ever since, Idaho presidential primaries have been in late May, and were simultaneous with the primary for other office. However, in 2012, the state canceled the presidential primaries because both major parties decided to use caucuses instead.

Now the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee has introduced SB 1049, to hold a presidential primary on the second Tuesday of March, which would be just a presidential primary, not a primary for other office. The bill would not change the May primary date for office other than president. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.