On July 26, the Nebraska Secretary of State certified Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for the ballot as an independent candidate. The Secretary of State said the Democratic Party’s challenge to his candidacy has no merit. The party had claimed that Kennedy could not be an independent candidate in some states because he is a minor party in other states. See this story.
This story says Florida Democratic Party officials are asking the Secretary of State to produce documents related to the ballot status of the Reform Party. This year, the Reform Party has nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for president.
When the Florida Reform Praty nominated Ralph Nader in 2004, Democrats sued to remove the Reform Party from the ballot. However, the Reform Party won the lawsuit in State Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Rust v Morales, 23-1369, at its September 30 conference. This is the Indiana case over how candidates get on a primary ballot. The law lets the state exclude candidates who did not vote in the last primary held for that party. The plaintiff had wanted to run as a Republican for U.S. Senate this year, but he was excluded.
Also on September 30, the Court will also consider whether to hear Bell v Raffensperger, 23-7684. This is the Georgia case filed by an independent candidate for the legislature, Andrew W. Bell. It concerns the lack of due process when Georgia checks petition signatures.
The American Solidarity Party is working on its Pennsylvania petition, which requires 5,000 signatures. It expects to succeed. If so, that will be the largest petition drive the party has yet completed in its history. The party has been active in elections since 2016.
It seems likely Democrats will have a presumptive vice-presidential nominee by August 7. That is historically rather late in the process, but not too unusual.
The ticket that took the longest to be presumptively known, in history, was the Republican ticket in 2008. John McCain didn’t express his preference for a v-p, Sarah Palin, until August 29.
Second-latest was the Democratic ticket of 2008, when Barack Obama didn’t announce Joe Biden until August 23.
