Parties are ballot-qualified in Delaware this year if they have registration equal to at least one-twentieth of 1% of the state total.  This year, that meant 305 registrants are needed.  The deadline has passed, and the Constitution Party fell short by 17 members.

However, the Blue Enigma Party did qualify, with 311 members.  That party was founded in 2008 to work for better salaries for teachers.  It joins the other ballot-qualified minor parties:  Independent Party, Libertarian, Working Families, and Green.

Delaware makes it difficult for any party to gain registrations during an election year.  Delaware has the nation’s second most restrictive law on whether voters may change parties, in the months before a primary, and also (irrationally) in the months before a general election.  There is no state interest in preventing voters from changing parties  in the months before a general election, and Delaware is the only state that does that.  There is an ostensible purpose to making it impossible for voters to change parties before a primary, to prevent “raiding” (insincere attempts by voters to join a political party just to manipulate who wins its primary).  The only state that is more rigid about letting voters switch parties before a primary is New York.

A U.S. District Court in Rhode Island will hear Healey v State, 10-316, on September 1.  The judge has indicated he will make a decision within two or three days afterwards.  The issue is the state’s “straight-ticket” device, which lets voters cast a vote for all nominees of one particular party without even looking at the part of the ballot that shows who is running.

Healey is an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor, with the ballot label “Cool Moose.”  Independent candidates, of course, do not get their own straight-ticket device.

A second federal lawsuit against Rhode Island’s straight-ticket device was filed on August 20.  It is Lusi v Mollis, 10-350.  The lead plaintiff, Joseph Lusi, is an independent candidate for Governor.

Although it may seem late in the election season for a case like this to be heard, Rhode Island does not hold its primary until September 14, and the issue of straight-ticket devices only affects the November ballot.  Obviously Rhode Island can’t print its November ballots until after it has counted the votes in the primary.

The Arkansas AFL-CIO recently endorsed Mark Swaney, for state representative in the 90th district.  Swaney is the Green Party nominee.  His only opponent in November is a Republican.