On June 9, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy ordered that the Michigan Secretary of State is permitted to respond to the request for reconsideration in Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, eastern district, 12-cv-13627. Most of the time, when plaintiffs lose and then ask for reconsideration, the court denies reconsideration without even asking the other side to respond. But in this case, the request for reconsideration is weighty enough that the Judge wants to hear from the Secretary of State.

The main issue in this case is whether Michigan is violating Equal Protection by requiring approximately twice as many signatures to get a newly-qualifying party on the ballot, as it requires votes for an old party to remain on the ballot.

Nevada held primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties on June 10. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, eight candidates competed with “None of these candidates.” “None” got the most votes, 29.96%. When “none” gets the most votes, there are no consequences, so the nominee is Robert Goodman, who got 24.76%. Here are the results from the Secretary of State’s web page.

On May 31, the Libertarian Party moved its national office into an office that the party owns. The new headquarters is at 1444 Duke Street, Alexandria, Va 22314. It is believed that the Libertarian Party is the only nationally-organized political party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, to own its own headquarters building. The last minor parties that owned their own headquarters buildings, it is believed, were the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party, which once owned buildings in New York city.

The Libertarian Party also seems to be the only nationally organized political party that has set the location and date of its 2016 presidential convention. The Libertarian presidential convention will be in Orlando, Florida, May 26-30, 2016.