On August 27, the federal government refused to exempt Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii and Wisconsin from the new federal law that tells states they must mail overseas absentee ballots no later than 45 days before the election.  See this story, on how the denial of the waiver affects Hawaii.  It is likely that these states will now consent to count foreign absentee ballots even if they arrive late.

Also see this story.  The federal government also denied waivers to the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands.  However, it granted waivers to Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.

Louisiana held a primary for the Libertarian Party on August 28 for U.S. Senate.  Although the results aren’t complete, Randall Todd Hayes so far has 1,529 votes, and Anthony Gentile has 950.

According to John A. Murphy, a Nader supporter and a vigorous and passionate fighter for ballot access reform in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s State Committee has decided to support SB 252, the ballot access reform bill.  Murphy’s source is a close friend who is on that Committee.  The Committee will meet on September 24-25 and is expected to endorse the bill.  Ballot access activists are welcome to attend the meeting.

SB 252 is based on Delaware’s law.  It says that a group that has registration membership of at least one-twentieth of 1% is considered a qualified minor party, and is entitled to nominate by convention.  If the bill were law currently, the Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties would be ballot-qualified.  The bill also substantially lowers the number of signatures needed for independent candidates.