On December 31, 2024, the Tennessee Libertarian Party filed this Reply brief in Darnell v Hargett, 24-5856, in the Sixth Circuit. This is the case that challenges the Tennessee law on how new parties get on the ballot.
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America, the magazine founded by Jesuits in the United States in 1909, has this op-ed about the American Solidarity Party, written by party activist Phillip Hicks.
Washington, D.C. has a procedure for a write-in declaration of candidacy for presidential candidates in general elections, but D.C. also has a policy that it won’t tally those write-ins. This year, these candidates filed the declaration: Chase Oliver, Jill Stein, Claudia De la Cruz, and Shiva Ayyadurai.
Joseph Bishop-Henchman, who lives in D.C., was irked that no write-in information was released by the Board of Elections, so he arranged to count them himself. Among candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state, he found these: Jill Stein 2,246; Claudia De la Cruz 609; Cornel West 461; Chase Oliver 202; Peter Sonski 128; Randall Terry 4.
He also tallied the votes for people who weren’t candidates. See his whole report at Independent Political Report.
South Carolina lets qualified parties change their name. The Independence Party, which has been ballot-qualified for almost thirty years, recently changed its name to the Forward Party. Therefore, the Forward Party is now ballot-qualified in South Carolina, the fourth state in which it has gained that status. Thanks to Chris Powell for this news. The party is also on in Colorado, Florida, and Utah.
On November 21, 2024, the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in Brown v Yost, 24-3354. The issue was the Ohio initiative process for statewide initiatives. The law requires a group to get approval from the Attorney General before beginning to circulate its petition. The Attorney General has the power to object to the summary of the initiative that would appear on the petition.
The Attorney General objected to six different versions of the summary for one particular proposed initiative, which wasted so much time that the proponents had to give up collecting the needed signatures. The proponents then filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the unlimited discretion given the Attorney General violates the First Amendment. The Sixth Circuit granted injunctive relief against the Attorney General on May 29, 2024. Then the state appealed to all the judges of the Sixth Circuit, and they agreed to re-hear the case. Then, on November 21, they said the matter of injunctive relief is moot. Here is that opinion.
The opinion agrees that the issue of declaratory relief is not moot. The opinion is unsigned. There are some dissents, both from some judges who support the May 2024 opinion, and some who not only oppose that opinion, but feel the declaratory judgment claim should also be denied.