On August 22, the Republican Party activists who are challenging the Libertarian statewide Pennsylvania petition asked the Libertarian Party to withdraw the petition, but the Libertarians refused. The Republicans said if the petition were withdrawn today, they would not seek court costs.

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Court is expected to rule soon on whether the Republican challengers will be permitted to intevene in the federal lawsuit that argues the challenge/fee system violates the U.S. Constitution.

The deadline has passed for independent presidential candidates to file petitions in Montana. The only candidate who filed such a petition is Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee. Montana permits independent candidates to choose a partisan label that appears on the ballot. The state will probably announce on August 23 whether the petition has enough valid signatures.

The ballot-qualified parties in Montana are: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.

A U.S. District Court in Nevada has ruled against the state law that provides “None of these candidates” to be printed on ballots for statewide office. See this story.

Presumably Nevada could amend the law and make it constitutional, by providing that if “None of these candidates” wins the most votes, then every candidate whose name had been on the ballot is defeated. Nevada is one of five states that bans all write-in votes. Nevada sometimes says that write-ins are not needed in that state because of the “None” alternative.

Judge Robert C. Jones has not yet put out anything in writing, but said he expects to do that very soon. The case is Townley v State of Nevada, 3:12-cv-310.