On August 29, the three Iowa officials charged with adjudicating the challenge to the Libertarian Party’s ballot placement voted 3-0 to keep the Libertarian Party presidential ticket on the ballot. The three officials were the Secretary of State, the Auditor, and the Attorney General.

Defying conventional expectation, Matt Schultz, the Republican Secretary of State, spoke out most forcefully in defense of the Gary Johnson ballot position. And the Democratic Attorney General, Tom Miller, at first was most in favor of removing Johnson from the ballot. However, in the end, Miller agreed with Schultz. The Iowa election code does not describe or even define “convention” in the section relating to unqualified party ballot access. Schultz also pointed out that Iowa permitted Brian Moore, the 2008 Socialist Party presidential nominee, to get on the ballot using an open-air convention at which passers-by were permitted to sign the roster.

Here is a brief news story. UPDATE: here is the formal decision. Thanks to Alicia Dearn for the link to the decision.

On August 24, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter dismissed the case known as Delegates to the Republican National Convention v Republican National Committee, 8:12-cv-927, central district of California. The case had been filed by 119 Ron Paul delegates to the national convention over various disputes with the Republican National Committee. The case was dismissed mostly because the judge said the plaintiffs had failed to comply with court rules.

On August 28, a lower New Mexico state court ruled that Independent American Party U.S. Senate nominee Jon Barrie should be on the November ballot. He will be the first person on a general election ballot for U.S. Senate in New Mexico (other than the Democratic and Republican nominees) since 1996. The 4-page decision interprets New Mexico law to mean that signatures are valid even if the voter had moved and had not yet re-registered at his or her new address, assuming there is no reason to suspect fraud or deception. The case is Barrie v Duran, D-101-cv-2012-02233.