On April 23, U.S. District Court Judge William Ray, a Trump appointee, refused injunctive relief to the Catoosa County Republican Party. The party wanted some candidates for County Commission excluded from the Republican primary ballot of May 21. The party claims the candidates are not bona fide Republicans. Catoosa County Republican Party v Catoosa County Board of Elections, 4:24cv-95.

The judge said the party filed its federal lawsuit too late, and also doubted that the party’s freedom of association would be injured if the candidates remained on the ballot. He also noted that the party has a similar case pending in the Georgia Supreme Court, although that court won’t hear the case until after the primary.

The ruling also rejected the party’s attempt to place some ballot measures on the primary ballot, partly because of time constraints, and also because the ballot measures implied that the challenged candidates are really “anti-Trump Democrats”. Although parties have a right to place advisory questions on their own primary ballots, the questions aren’t permitted if they relate to candidates whose names are appearing on the same primary ballot.

Georgia does not have registration by party.

The Constitution Party national convention will choose a presidential nominee on Saturday, April 27, in Salt Lake City. There is a somewhat surprising lack of news in mainstream media about the upcoming convention. The party’s presidential nominee will probably be on the ballot in more states than Cornel West, and yet national polls often include West and never include any Constitution Party potential nominee. The two leading candidates for the party’s nomination appear to be Randall Terry (long-time activist against legal abortion) and Joel Skousen, part of a famous family.

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has a compilation of ballot access laws that affect presidential elections. It was revised recently. It shows the deadline for qualified parties to certify their presidential nominees in each state. The vast majority of such deadlines are in September.

However, a quick look at the NASS compilation reveals that it may not be entirely up-to-date. The entry for California says a new party needs registration of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, and it must have it by 135 days before the primary. But in 2014, the law was changed, and now requires registration of .33% of the total number of registered voters. Also the deadline is in July, a much later deadline than the old law.

I only checked the NASS chart for three states, so there may be other bits of out-of-date information.