The Grand Forks, North Dakota newspaper has this story about the aftermath of last week’s decision by the Secretary of State to put Joshua Voytek on the November ballot as the Libertarian Party nominee for Public Service Commission.

Voytek was left off the Libertarian Primary ballot because the Secretary of State’s office misfiled his declaration of candidacy.  By the time the office found that paperwork, the primary ballots had already been printed.  Secretary of State Al Jaeger consulted with the Attorney General, and they agreed that the only fair way to handle the problem was to list Voytek on the November ballot even though, technically, he had not been nominated in the Libertarian primary.  But, according to the recent story, some Democrats are unhappy with that solution to the problem.  Also, see this editorial in the June 25 Bismarck Tribune.

On June 24, a U.S. District Court in Miami, Florida, held a hearing in South Florida Tea Party, Inc. v Tea Party.  The case was filed on January 19, 2010, by various Tea Party groups that are not themselves qualified political parties.  They are seeking a court ruling that the ballot-qualified Tea Party should be either removed from the ballot, or forced to choose another name.  See this story in the Sunshine State News.

On June 24, a Texas lower state court judge removed the Green Party from the ballot, because the judge believes that the party had no right to receive a large indirect donation that paid for the petition drive.  See this brief story.  The decision will be appealed.  The case is Texas Democratic Party v Texas Green Party, d-1-gn-10-001924.

Texas law has always been very insistent that a signature on a petition is equivalent to a primary vote.  That is why Texas is the only state that won’t let primary voters sign a petition to place a new party on the ballot.  It would be unthinkable to cancel a primary election outcome just because the winner of the primary received campaign contributions that were in some way unlawful.  If this decision stands, it shows that Texas does not really believe that a signature on a petition is equivalent to a primary vote.