On September 13, a state court in Colorado heard the case in which two Republican voters are asking that a court remove Tom Tancredo from the November 2, 2010 ballot. See this story, which says the decision is expected on September 14.
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Four Reform Party nominees for U.S. House have been restored to the November 2, 2010 ballot in Mississippi. See this story. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link. Also thanks to the commenter who helped update this story.
The Reform nominees in the second and third districts, Ashley Norwood and Tracella Hill, are the only opponents to the Democratic and Republican nominees in those districts. In other words, in each of those two districts, there is now a Republican, a Democrat, and a Reform Party nominee.
On September 3, an Oregon Circuit Court refused to grant an injunction, requiring Oregon ballot to include the full name of political parties on the ballot. Instead, the state is now free to direct the counties to use three-letter abbreviations. The case is still alive, but because no injunctive relief was obtained, the November 2010 ballots will use three-letter abbreviations. The case is Progressive Party of Oregon v Brown, 10C-20167, Marion County (3rd district).
The judge declined to give injunctive relief because he wanted to hear from the county elections officials about the harm they would suffer, if he granted the injunction. However, the only Defendant was the Secretary of State, so there was no one present, and involved in the case, to testify on behalf of the counties.
John A. Ferentinos, a Tea Party candidate for Florida’s State Senate, 26th district, was omitted from the November ballot because his campaign finance paperwork accidentally failed to list the name of bank which handles his campaign account. However, then he noticed that his only opponent, Republican incumbent Senator Mike Haridopolos, had failed to complete one question on that same form, namely the question asking whether the campaign bank account is a primary account or a secondary account. However, Haridopolos had not been removed from ballot.
Ferentinos had filed a lawsuit in federal court on August 23, but on September 3, the federal court ruled that Ferentinos should have filed in state court. He is in the process of filing a new lawsuit in state court in Osceola. But he runs the risk that the state court will say the lawsuit was filed too late.
The Massachusetts Secretary of State recently released registration data. The data is as of August 25, 2010. The new figures: Democratic 1,521,487; Republican 470,852; Libertarian 14,784; Green 5,717; American Independent 700; Reform 296; Socialist 207; Constitution 83; various other unqualified minor parties 1,503; independents 2,135,446. Total 4,151,075.
In the spring of 2010, the registration tally showed: Democratic 1,524,455; Republican 471,224; Libertarian 13,690; Green 5,858; Reform 304; Socialist 206; Constitution 90; independents and various other unqualified parties 2,128,714. Total 4,144,335. Thanks to Brandon Henderson for the news. Currently, the only ballot-qualified parties in Massachusetts are Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian, so those are the only parties listed on the voter registration form. Massachusetts tallies the number of registrations for other groups that request it, but their voters must write-in the name of that unqualified party on the voter registration form.
The Massachusetts Libertarian Party isn’t running any nominees in its own primary this year, so it will lose its status as a qualified party in November 2010 and will go off the voter registration form. The Libertarian Party is running some of its own nominees for U.S. House and state legislature as independent candidates this year, some of them with the ballot label “Liberty.” The party didn’t run any candidates in its own primary because state election laws make it so difficult for members of small qualified parties to get on their own party’s primary ballot.