On August 27, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled that the statewide Constitution Party slate didn’t have enough valid signatures, but that the statewide Libertarian slate does.  Both slates had been challenged.  The “binder check” had showed the Constitution Party to have 25,017 valid signatures, but in proceedings afterwards, the challengers persuaded the board that the Constitution Party slate was slightly below 25,000 valid signatures.

None of the statewide independent candidates survived, except for Scott Lee Cohen, who is running for Governor.  He had won the Democratic primary earlier this year for Lieutenant Governor, but then had withdrawn after the party pressured him to resign from the ticket so they could replace him with someone else.

Taylor Haynes, who would have been the first independent candidate on the ballot for Wyoming Governor since 1958 if he had qualified this year, did not qualify.  He was unable to obtain the needed 4,988 valid signatures.  This is the second petition failure in Wyoming this year.   The Constitution Party also made a strong effort, but failed.  See this story.

Wyoming’s requirement, 2% of the last vote cast, is significantly more severe in midterm years than in presidential years, because voter turnout is higher in presidential years.  No statewide minor party or independent candidate petition has succeeded in Wyoming since 1994, the last time the Libertarian Party petitioned in Wyoming.  Libertarians have not needed to petition since 1994, because the party always meets the 2% vote test.  Mike Wheeler, the Libertarian nominee, is on the ballot for Governor this year.

Wyoming is one of the few states in the nation in which neither the Green Party nor the Constitution Party has ever appeared on the ballot.  Wyoming only required 100 signatures for statewide minor party candidates, and for independent candidates, between 1890 and 1961, but in 1961 the legislature boosted the requirement to 5% of the last vote cast, although it has since been lowered to 2%.

Topher Matthews has this column in “Greater Greater Washington”, an on-line news source for the Washington, D.C., area, advocating that city elections in Washington, D.C. (or at least mayoralty elections) use Instant-Runoff Voting, and that the primary be abolished.  Washington, D.C., has partisan city elections.  The city is overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party.  Yet, as the column points out, the general election in November always has a substantially higher turnout than the summer primary.  See the column here.