Utah is the only state in which it is impossible for a candidate to get on a partisan primary ballot unless he or she has substantial support at a party convention (except that in Virginia, sometimes there are no primaries, when the major parties choose not to have a primary). A group in Utah has announced plans to place a statwide initiative on the ballot. The initiative would provide a means for candidates to petition for a place on a party primary ballot, so that they could seek their party’s nomination regardless of whether they have support at the convention. Here is the group’s web page. Here is a story about the effort. Thanks to Rob Latham for the links.

On May 23, the California Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom Parties sent this one-page letter to each California legislator. It outlines the election law problems faced by these parties. A California legislator has tentatively agreed to introduce a bill to relieve at least some of these problems. Although it is too late to introduce new bills, existing election law bills can be amended.

Medea Benjamin, a Green Party activist, and the party’s U.S. Senate nominee in California in 2000, is the subject of many news stories on May 23. She was in the audience at President Obama’s speech to the National Defense University, and she interrupted the President with questions about why he doesn’t close Guantanamo Prison and related matters. See this story, one of many. Also this story talks about how she gained admittance to the room. Here is a you tube of what Benjamin said.

In 2000 she polled 326,828 votes for U.S. Senate in California, 3.08%, placing third in a race with seven candidates on the ballot.