On September 27, New York State Senator Roy McDonald said that he will not ask voters to re-elect him in November, even though he is on the November ballot as the Independence Party nominee. He had been defeated in the Republican primary held on September 13. Governor Andrew Cuomo had told McDonald that if McDonald wanted to campaign to keep his seat as the Independence Party nominee, then the Governor would endorse him, campaign for him, and help him raise money. See this story about Cuomo’s offer, which the Senator has now declined.

McDonald lost the Republican primary because he had voted in favor of same-sex marriage. The Governor appreciated that vote and was thus willing to supercede his normal tendency to support Democratic nominees for state legislative races.

Both of the Michigan Libertarian Party ballot access cases are still actively trying to win a court ruling that will make it possible for voters to vote “Libertarian” for President without the need to cast a write-in vote.

In the original case, to get Governor Gary Johnson on the ballot, the party filed this brief on September 26 in the Sixth Circuit. That case is Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson, 12-2153. This brief submits evidence that even though Michigan said it had to print all its ballots earlier in the month, in reality it only had to print its overseas absentee ballots.

In the case that was filed earlier this month, Gelineau v Ruth Johnson, to get Gary Johnson of Austin, Texas, on the November ballot as the Libertarian presidential nominee, the party filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court on September 26, arguing that there is no valid reason why the state cannot let Libertarian straight-ticket voters have their straight-ticket votes counted for the Libertarian Party slate of electors. Also the brief points out that the state could have printed ballots that list Vice-Presidential nominee James Gray on the ballot; the state has never offered one reason why his name was not certified for the ballot. He was the original party nominee, certified in June, and the party never attempted to replace him. UPDATE: the U.S. District Court in this case has just instructed the Secretary of State to respond to the new filing by Monday, October 1, at 10 a.m.

The Justice Party is ballot-qualified in Mississippi. On September 5, two days before the deadline, it submitted its candidates for presidential elector. On September 10 the party was informed that one of its candidates for presidential elector is not a registered voter and is therefore ineligible. The party substituted a new candidate on the same day, but the Board of Canvassers rejected the new elector but said that Anderson would still be on the ballot, but if he won the popular vote, he would be disadvantaged because he would only have five presidential electors instead of six.

But, the state then started printing ballots and omitted Anderson’s name from the ballot. However, in the past, Mississippi has permitted presidential candidates to appear on its November ballot even though the candidate did not have a full slate of elector candidates. For example, in both 1972 and 1980 the Socialist Workers Party (which qualified Linda Jenness as its presidential nominee via the independent petition method, and Andrew Pulley in 1980 the same way) did not submit a complete slate of presidential elector candidates, but Mississippi still printed the candidates on the ballot.

The reason one of the electors isn’t registered to vote is that his registration was canceled without his being told that it had been canceled. In 2007 he had been charged with statutory rape because, as a 25-year-old, he had had sex with a 17-year-old girl he had met in a bar. She had a fake ID which said she was over age 18. He plea-bargained, was given no penalty, but apparently that eliminated his voter registration, although he did not know that. Here is a new story. Thanks to Austin Cassidy for the link.