As of May 9, 2024, these are the Louisiana state totals of registered voters: Democratic 1,133,813; Republican 1,021,571; Independent Party 136,125; Libertarian 15,839; Green 2,583; No Labels 2,296; Reform 823; Conservative 794; Constitution 154; Socialist 85; American Solidarity 103; PSL 5; independent and miscellaneous 665,154.

Percentages are: Democratic 38.06%; Republican 34.29%; Independent Party 4.57%; Libertarian .53%; Green .09%; No Labels .08%; Reform .03%; Conservative .03%; Constitution .01%; independent and other 22.31%.

In November 2023, the percentages were: Democratic 38.63%; Republican 33.86%; Independent Party 4.45%; Libertarian .53%; Green .09%; Reform .03%; Conservative .03%; Constitution .01%; independent and other 22.37%.

No Labels has enough registrants to be a qualified party, but it isn’t a qualified party because to complete the process it needs to submit of fee of $1,000, and it has not done that and does not intend to. The registration requirement is 1,000 members.

Third Party Watch says that the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., New York petition has 100,000 signatures. See here. The requirement is 45,000.

On May 8, the Ohio legislature made no headway with any bill to ease the deadline for qualified parties to certify the names of their presidential and vice-presidential nominees. See this story. The Senate Republicans want to pair the idea with a separate idea regarding campaign finance. But the House is uninterested in that. UPDATE: a bill could still pass and take effect in time if it has an emergency clause, but that takes a two-thirds vote in each house. The House has adjourned and will not reconvene until May 22.

It now seems likely that the Democratic Party will sue Ohio over its early August certification deadline. The proposed lawsuit is extremely likely to win. Early deadlines for candidates have been struck down in 30 states. Challenges to early deadlines are governing by the balancing test set forth in Anderson v Celebrezze, the 1983 U.S.Supreme Court decision that struck down Ohio’s deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions. Courts are instructed to weigh the harm to the state if the deadline is struck down, versus the harm done to voters if the deadline is upheld. In this case, it is obvious that there is no harm to Ohio if the deadline is struck down. No other state has such an early deadline. On the other hand, the harm done to voters if the deadline were upheld would be immense.

And if that weren’t enough, the U.S. Supreme Court decision Trump v Anderson, the unanimous decision that came down earlier this year, says the relationship between the president and the entire body of the U.S. public is so important, presidential elections cannot be limited by state laws that create a “patchwork”, in which presidential candidates are on the ballot in some states but not all of them.