On May 3, the Maryland State Board of Elections determined that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. Americans Elect submitted 18,450 signatures. The requirement is 10,000 valid signatures. Thanks to Doug McNeil for this news.
This article says some South Carolina major party members plan to petition as independent candidates, if they cannot obtain any relief from the primary ballot access problem mentioned in earlier posts.
It is likely that Gary Johnson, Lee Wrights, Carl Person, and Jim Burns will qualify to be nominated for President at the Libertarian Party national convention now being held in Las Vegas. Each delegate to the convention, upon registration, receives one token relating to presidential candidates. A delegate may use the token to indicate support for a particular presidential candidate. The delegate chooses a presidential candidate, lists that candidate on the token, and drops it in a ballot box.
Only candidates who receive at least 30 tokens may then be placed in nomination. According to Independent Political Report, so far Gary Johnson has 263 tokens, Lee Wrights has 127, Carl Person has 28, Jim Burns has 27, Sam Sloan has 12, Rita Neumann has 3, and James Ogle has 2. Not all tokens have yet been cast. Saturday is the day for presidential nominating speeches and voting for President.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear League of Women Voters of Illinois v Quinn, 11-943, at its May 17 conference. This is the case in which the League argues that gerrymandering violates the First Amendment. Other lawsuits in the past that oppose gerrymandering have argued that gerrymandering violates the 14th amendment.
On May 4, some of the almost 200 excluded major party candidates filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to seek relief. They were excluded from Democratic and Republican Party primary ballots. The primary is June 12. Also, some South Carolina legislators will try to rush through a bill to give some relief, that would take effect immediately.
Two days ago, the South Carolina Supreme Court removed the candidates, over paperwork. See this story. The mention of the federal lawsuit is at the end of the story.
