The Maryland Libertarian Party has been circulating a petition to regain its qualified party status. The petition needs 10,000 valid signatures. The party has about 6,800 signatures but has decided to complete the petition after the November 2026 election is over. Therefore, it won’t be on the ballot for the 2026 election.
The Green Party will be the only party on the 2026 ballot, other than the two major parties.
The Black Chronicle has this story about the April 13 decision Peace & Freedom Party v Weber, the minor party case against the top-two system.
On April 21, the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered that Rebecca Dow’s name should be restored to the Republican primary ballot. She had been kept off by the Secretary of State and by a lower state court because she filed screenshots of her petition pages, rather than filing the originals. Jaramillo v Whitehead, S-1-SC-41374. The court ruled orally and said a formal opinion will be written later. See this story.
Dow is an incumbent Republican state representative who is running for re-election.
On April 22, an eleven-judge panel of Ninth Circuit judges issued an opinion in Moving Oxnard Forward v Lopez, 21-56295. By a vote of 9-2, the majority upheld the contribution limits for candidates for Oxnard, California city office. Here is the decision.
The case had been filed in 2020 and was one of the oldest election law cases pending anywhere in the nation. The U.S. District Court had upheld the limits, but then the original 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had struck them down.
On April 22, the Illinois State Board of Elections filed this brief in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s ballot access. The state argues that the Independence Party should not be allowed to intervene in the case.
