On April 10, the Seventh Circuit heard oral argument in Indiana Green Party v Morales, 23-2756. The issue is the number of signatures and the early deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The three judges were Michael Brennan, David F. Hamilton, and Kenneth Ripple. If any news stories about the oral argument appear, this blog post will try to link to such stories.
The Prohibition Party is petitioning in Pennsylvania to be on the ballot for president this year. If the drive succeeds, it will be the first time since 1954 (a midterm year) in which the party has had a nominee on the Pennsylvania statewide ballot.
The Prohibition Party is the recipient of a bequest set up in 1930, which helps its income. The trust was set up by George Pennock, one of the party’s wealthiest supporters during the early 20th century.
On April 10, Cornel West announced that his vice-presidential running mate is Professor Melina Abdullah, a Californian. See this story.
The New York Times has this article, saying Republicans want to boost minor party and independent presidential candidates this year. The authors repeated debunked claims about the 1992 and 2016 elections. They say Ross Perot helped Bill Clinton win in 1992, ignoring the exit polls in 1992 that said half the Perot voters said they would have voted for Clinton if Perot had not been running. They also ignore the fact that between July 17 and September 30, when Perot wasn’t running, Clinton was leading in the polls.
About the 2016 election, they say Jill Stein “gave a meaningful – and arguably election-deciding – boost to Mr. Trump by drawing progressive votes away from Hillary Clinton.” Yet the 2016 exit pollsters had extra questions for Stein voters, which reveal that 25% of the Stein voters said they would have voted for Clinton if Stein had not been on the ballot, but 14% of the Stein voters said they would have voted for Trump. Applying those percentages to the actual vote returns in the three states mention in the article (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) Stein did not change the electoral outcome in any state.
The authors are Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher, Jonathan Swan, and Rebecca Davis O’Brien.
On April 9, the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. campaign said it had submitted almost twice as many signatures in Nebraska as are legally required.
See this story.
