U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Jones will hear Townley v State of Nevada on Wednesday, August 22, at 10 a.m., in Reno. This is the lawsuit over “None of the above” (actually, in Nevada, it is “None of These Candidates”). Plaintiffs argue that if that option appears on the ballot, the law must make it binding. In other words, if Nevada is going to have a “NOTA” then if “NOTA” gets the most votes, no one is elected. The argument is highly theoretical, but is based on the definition of “vote” and the need to treat all votes equally.

Some of the Republican presidential elector candidates are plaintiffs, and plaintiffs argue that if “NOTA” is not binding, then it should be removed from the ballot. Under current Nevada law, “NOTA” only appears on primary and general election ballots for statewide office, not for U.S. House or legislature or local office. Judge Jones is a Bush Jr. appointee.

On August 19, the Michigan Libertarian Party requested that U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman, who has jurisdiction over Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson, expedite that case. The issue is whether Gary Johnson should be on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee for President. The state is keeping him off because his name appeared on the February 2012 Republican presidential primary ballot.

Washington state will release official election returns, for the primary of August 7, on August 21. It appears that turnout will be 38.4% of registered voters, the lowest turnout on record for any Washington primary in a gubernatorial election year in history.

All the statewide state executive offices, and all the Congressional races, in November, will be between one Republican and one Democrat. The only minor party candidates who will appear on the November ballot for any state or congress are two state legislative candidates, who ran in districts in which only one major party member ran. At the August primary, the Green Party candidate in the primary, Howard Pellett, running against a Democrat in the 40th district, received 21.5%, placing second. The Socialist Alternative Party candidate in the primary, Kshama Sawant, running against a Democrat in the 43rd district, received 9.1%, placing second.