Both sides in the lawsuit Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections will meet with a mediator on September 26, to attempt to settle the lawsuit. If no agreement can be reached, the case will proceed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. The issue is whether the Board must tally the write-in votes for declared write-in presidential candidates. In 2008 Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee, was the only presidential candidate who filed for declared write-in status. He submitted the names of three candidates for presidential elector. No other write-in presidential candidate took this step. However, the Board refused to tally his write-ins, even though federal law requires all jurisdictions that have electoral votes to report the number of valid votes for all presidential candidates to the federal archives.

The U.S. District Court earlier ruled that the Board’s interest in saving money and effort is more important than the ability of voters to have their valid votes counted. Then, the Board had sought to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the case, but the Appeals court rejected that attempt, so the case is still pending.

“The Empire”, politics blog for New York city’s biggest National Public Radio station, has this feature story about the third candidate in the U.S. House race, 9th district. The election is September 13, 2011. Thanks to Scott West for the link. UPDATE: here is a story about the 3-candidate debate in this race held on the evening of September 8, including a picture of Hoeppner speaking while his two opponents listen. This story is from the Queens Campaigner, the politics blog for the Queens Ledger.

The September 9 Columbus Dispatch has this story about the September 7 decision that enjoins the Ohio ballot access law for newly-qualifying parties. The story seems to say that the Secretary of State will not appeal the decision. Still to be determined is the Secretary of State’s position on the Constitution, Green, and Socialist Parties.

New parties, such as Americans Elect, can be expected to present evidence to the Secretary of State that they also have a modicum of voter support. This should be easy for Americans Elect, which will be able to show that it has collected approximately 1,700,000 signatures on various petitions around the country so far this year. In neighboring Michigan, where Americans Elect turned in over 68,000 signatures in May, the Board of State Canvassers is expected to certify Americans Elect at its meeting on September 15. In California, Americans Elect is expected to turn in its signatures today in the southern California counties in which it hasn’t already turned in its signatures.