James J. Condit, Jr., has filed to appear on the Ohio Constitution Party primary ballot, for U.S. House, 8th district. Condit has run against House Speaker John Boehner twice in the past, and intends to do so again in 2014. See this story, which names all the candidates who filed in the 8th district for a spot on a primary ballot.

In November 2012, no one appeared on the ballot against Boehner, but Condit was a write-in candidate, polling 1,938 write-ins. In November 2010, Boehner had opponents from the Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. The November 2010 vote was: Republican 142,731; Democratic 65,883; Libertarian 5,121; Constitution 3,701.

New York city ballots in 2014 and future years will be easier to read than they were in 2013. See this story, which says the Board found a way to increase the font size of the names of candidates and parties. Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.

Gapers Block, an on-line news source for Chicago, has this interesting article by Phil Huckelberry about the upcoming March 18, 2014 Illinois primary. Because the Democratic primary, at least for the important statewide offices (Governor and U.S. Senator) is an unexciting event, it appears many Democratic-leaning groups may encourage Democrats to vote in the Illinois Republican primary.

Illinois does not have registration by party, so it fits the classic definition of an open primary state. Some of the definitions of types of primary in the article don’t correspond to that vocabulary, however. In Illinois, the press seems to think that an open primary is only a primary in which a voter’s choice as to which primary ballot to choose is a secret. In Illinois, a voter must publicly ask for one particular party’s primary ballot at the polling place. Therefore the Illinois press doesn’t describe the existing Illinois system as an open primary.