On March 28, the Georgia legislature passed an election law bill that has varied topics, including a provision added only eight days earlier that eases ballot access for minor parties for President (but no other office).

SB 189 was introduced over a year ago, and only related to how electronic vote-counting machines count votes.  It sat dormant until January 25, 2024, when it began to move through the Senate.  It passed the Senate on Febraury 6, 2024.  Then, on March 20, in the House, it was amended to include the ballot access provision.  The Senate accepted that change and both houses passed it on the evening of March 28.  Then the legislature adjourned.  Here is the text.

The provision says if a political party or political body is on the ballot for president in at least 20 other states, then it is automatically on for president in Georgia.  However, it does not cover independent presidential candidates.  Assuming it is signed into law, it will help the No Labels, Green, and Constitution Parties.  It won’t help Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., because he expects to be an independent candidate in almost all states, not a minor party nominee.  At the most his “We the People Party” will only be on in six states.

The Libertarian Party is already on the ballot for president and other statewide offices.  It is not clear if the 2012 court order requiring the state to let presidential candidates on the ballot with at least 7,500 signatures is still in effect.  Logically, because the legislature didn’t change the law regarding independent candidates, it should still be in effect for independent presidential candidates.

On Wednesday, March 27, 2024, three Ohio activists who are part of a group attempting to place a citizens’ initiative constitutional amendment on the ballot in Ohio, sued the Attorney General of Ohio in federal court.  Brown v Yost, s.d., 2:24cv-1401.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge James L. Graham, a Reagan appointee.

As part of the Ohio constitutional amendment process, the Attorney General of Ohio must judge whether the Summary of the actual text of an amendment to the Ohio Constitution is fair in its description of the actual amendment text.

David Yost, who is the current Ohio Attorney General, rejected a Summary of a proposed amendment, which is called “The Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights Amendment.” Among the amendment’s provisions is “Qualified immunity, sovereign immunity, prosecutorial immunity, and any immunity provided to the State, political subdivision, or public employee by statute are eliminated.” The entire Summary that was rejected is Page 19 of the Complaint, the link to which is below.

The rejection of the Summary has stopped the signature collection process before it could even start. And, over 400,000 signatures of Ohio registered voters must be gathered by July 3, 2024, for this constitutional amendment to be placed on the November 5, 2024 ballot. If passed on that date, this would become effective on January 1, 2025.

An appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court for expedited review of the Attorney General’s rejection of the Summary was denied, effectively ending any chance of this issue making the November 2024 ballot, but for this litigation in federal court.

Here is the US District Court Complaint.

Here is the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction and Attached Memorandum of Law in Support.

Thanks to Mark Brown for letting me know about this.

The Arizona Green Party is ballot-qualified, and state law requires it to nominate by primary. There are three individuals seeking the Green Party nomination for U.S. Senate whom the Green Party believes are not sincere supporters of the party. One is believed to be sympathetic to the Republican Party. He is believed to be motivated by a desire to injure the eventual Democratic nominee.

Another sham candidate is believed to be sympathetic to the Democratic Party, and if he gets the Green nomination, he will withdraw.

A third sham candidate is running on a platform that completely contradicts the Green Party’s core values.

The party sent out a message to its members on March 27, asking them not to sign primary petitions for any of the three. There is a bona fide Green also seeking the nomination.

Minor parties in the U.S. are better off when states allow them to nominate by convention, as this example illustrates.