On June 21, the Ninth Circuit issued this 6-page opinion in Sanders County Republican Party v Fox, 12-35816. This is a Montana decision. The decision re-affirms the panel’s earlier determination that political parties have a right to endorse candidates for judicial office. But the decision also says that the separate issue of whether parties can be banned from contributing to candidates for judicial office was never part of the case, and therefore it reverses the U.S. District Court on that issue.

The ban on political party endorsements, and the ban on political party contributions, are all part of the same code section. The U.S. District Court had struck down the entire code section, but it is now clear that only the endorsement ban is unconstitutional and the issue of contributions has not been adjudicated.

On the evening of June 20, the New York legislature passed A7832, which authorizes New York city to use the old-fashioned mechanical voting machines in this year’s city elections. The machines have been in storage since 2010. Federal law does not permit their use in federal elections, and they have not been used anywhere else in the nation since 2006. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news.

Virginia holds state elections on November 5, 2013. The State Board of Elections won’t have a list of candidates for the legislature until June 28. It appears that twelve minor party candidates for the legislature submitted enough valid signatures to be on the ballot. It is not known how many independent candidates submitted petitions.

The seven Libertarian candidates for the legislature who submitted petitions are: Jonathan Parrish, 23rd district; Patrick Haggerty, 33rd district; Laura Delhomme, 47th district; Lindsey Bolton, 48th district; Anthony Tellez, 53rd district; Christopher Sullivan, 55th district; and Dan Foster, 78th district. This is the largest number of Libertarian legislative candidates on the Virginia ballot since 1993, when there were also seven. However, this year the party has a gubernatorial candidate who is expected to be on the ballot, whereas the party had no statewide candidates in 1993.

The four Independent Green Party candidates for the legislature who submitted petitions are Terry Modglin, 49th district; Tim Leslie, 38th district; Gail Parker; and Joe Glean, 44th district. The largest number of legislative candidates the Independent Green Party has ever had on the ballot was in 2009, when it had seven.

The Constitution Party legislative candidate who submitted a petition is Joshua Ball, 19th district. There may be others.

Lacey Putney, who has been an independent member of the Virginia legislature since 1971, and who was previously in the legislature as a Democrat, is not running for re-election this year. He is 84 and has served in the legislature for the past 52 years.

Virginia usually has few minor party candidates for the legislature on the ballot, because the Virginia definition of a qualified party is so severe that generally only the Democrats and Republicans are on the ballot automatically. The law requires a vote of 10%. No state has a higher percentage of the vote for party status except Alabama and, in a partial sense, Georgia, both of which require 20%. The only party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties that has been ballot-qualified in the last 40 years was the Reform Party, 1994-1997.