On September 1 (Saturday), the Ohio voters who challenged Gary Johnson’s placement on the general election ballot withdrew their challenge. They did not explain why they withdrew. Thanks to Gary Sinawski for this news.

In a slightly related development, on August 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th circuit, dismissed the Ohio legislature’s appeal of the 2011 U.S. District Court decision that put the Libertarian Party on the ballot for 2012. The 6th circuit said the case is moot.

Ohio has now been without a constitutional ballot access law for newly-qualifying parties for six full years. It will be interesting to see if the 2013 session of the legislature passes a valid law. According to 52 court precedents from around the country, petition deadlines as early as March are unconstitutional. Yet in all six years, there has been no bill introduced in the Ohio legislature to set a petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties that would be upheld. The only reasonable solution is to eliminate the requirement that newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary. Very few other states requires that newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary, as a condition of having their nominees on the general election ballot with the party label. Ohio has a strong preference for an early primary, especially in presidential election years. If Ohio were willing to hold its congressional/state office primary in the late summer, the problem would be easier to solve, but given the state preference for an early primary, the state needs to exempt newly-qualifying parties from having a primary.

Alaska held its primary on August 28. Alaska has a blanket primary for all parties except the Republican Party, and then there is a separate Republican primary ballot. Independents may choose either ballot.

In the blanket primary, for U.S. House, that ballot contained five Democrats and one Libertarian, Jim McDermott. McDermott polled 14.8%, placing third. Of course, because it is a blanket primary, the top vote-getter from each party advances to the general election. McDermott didn’t need to poll any particular number of votes to “win” the primary, since he was the only Libertarian running.

Unless someone filed as an independent candidate, the November race for U.S. House in Alaska will be between Republican incumbent Don Young (age 79), Democrat Sharon Cissna (age 70), and McDermott (age 55).

On August 17, the Alabama Democratic Party State Executive Committee voted to remove its nominee for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. See this story. The removal was based on comments that the nominee, Harry Lyon, had been making. The party replaced him with Bob Vance, a lower state court judge.

Alabama has partisan elections for State Judicial elections. Alabama law already permitted state political parties to prevent candidates from seeking a place on a primary ballot, based on whether the party perceives that the candidates is a loyal member of the party. But it seems somewhat surprising that Alabama also permits parties to remove their nominees, based on what the nominees say about political issues, after the primary is over. Lyon had been the only person who filed to run in the Democratic primary, which had been held in March.