According to this news story, elections officials in Mahoning County, Ohio, have found some more valid signatures for independent congressman candidate Jim Traficante, so that he is likely to be on the ballot for U.S. House in the 17th district.
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Florida held its primaries on August 24. Brian Moore, who was the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate in 2008, was on the Democratic ballot as a candidate for Governor. In a two-person race, he received 23.1% of the vote. Not all votes have been counted yet, but already he is credited with 200,000 votes. See this story.
On August 27, the statewide New Hampshire Libertarian Party was verified as having enough valid signatures. The party is running Ken Blevins for U.S. Senate, and John Barbiarz for Governor. If either one of them polls 4% this November, the party will regain its status as a qualified party, which it enjoyed from November 1990 to November 1996. Back then, the vote test was 3%, but in 1997 the legislature changed it to 4%.
A Florida state court will hold a hearing on August 30 in Morton v Crist, the case over whether people who contributed money to Governor Charlie Crist when he was a Republican may demand refunds. See this story.
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 He had won the Democratic primary earlier this year for Lieutenant Governor, but then had withdrawn after the party pressured him to resign from the ticket so they could replace him with someone else.