On August 22, the Ohio Secretary of State determined that the petition to recognize the Libertarian Party has enough valid signatures. As a new party, it does not have its own primary, but essentially nominates by convention or other party meeting, although each nominee needs a tiny petition.
Wisconsin Democrats are challenging the ballot position of Cornel West, on the basis that some campaign documents were not notarized properly. No one disputes that he has enough valid signatures. The administrative challenge will be heard on Wednesday, August 27, at 11 a.m.
The Constitution Party held a presidential convention on April 27, and nominated Randall Terry. He defeated Joel Skousen by a vote of 144-80, and there were 40 votes for other candidates. That may not seem close, but the outcome was partly dictated by the party’s rules. They permit some solitary delegates to cast many votes. If a state has the right to have 34 delegates, but it only has a single delegate, that single delegate can cast all 34 votes. Terry received all 34 votes from Florida, but only one delegate from Florida was in attendance, so that one delegate has disproportionate power.
The new rules, effective in 2028, limit each delegate to only one vote. If that change had been effective in 2024, the outcome might have been different. In each of the last two presidential conventions, the party’s national choice has been rejected by multiple state Constitution Parties. This year, the ballot-qualified Constitution Parties of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, have all refused to list Terry on the ballot.
Similarly, in 2020, the ballot-qualified Constitution Parties of New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wyoming wouldn’t list the national convention’s choice, Don Blankenship. It is unprecedented for any nationally-organized minor party in U.S. history to have chosen a presidential nominee in a national convention and then had as many as four ballot-qualified state units of the party refuse to list that candidate, two elections in a row. Clearly the Constitution Party in recent years has a big problem with party disunity, and perhaps a different nomination process at the national convention might help in the future.
The Louisiana deadline for presidential candidates to file was August 23. There are eleven candidates: the nominees of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, We the People, Justice for All, Socialism & Liberation, American Solidarity, and Socialist Workers Parties; and an independent, Mattie Preston, whose ballot slogan is “Godliness, Truth, Justice.”
Louisiana now has the nation’s easiest ballot access law for president, although one could make the case that Mississippi and Vermont are equally easy. Presidential candidates get on in Louisiana with a filing fee of $500, plus they must have a presidential elector candidate living in each U.S. House district. Effective in 2028 the fee is $1,000.
On Saturday, August 24, the Michigan Court of Claims issued opinion and order in West v Michigan Secretary of State, 24-000134-MB. It says that independent candidates do not need to file an affidavit of identity, and therefore there is no basis to invalidate Cornel West’s independent candidacy.
The Secretary of State had invalidated West’s ballot position because of notary problems with the affidavit, but the court has determined that he didn’t even need to file that document
The state hasn’t checked the validity of West’s petition, but he turned in so many signatures, it is extremely likely that he has enough.
