This newspaper story says that Ohio Republican legislative leaders say it is up to Democratic legislators to introduce a bill easing the deadline for parties to certify their presidential nominees. Apparently no such bill has been introduced yet in Ohio, even though there are similar bills introduced in Alabama.
On Friday, April 12, the Third Circuit heard arguments in Kim v Hanlon, 24-1594. The judges are Kent Jordan (Bush Jr. appointee), Cheryl Ann Krause (Obama), and Arianna J. Freeman (Biden). This is the lawsuit over New Jersey’s ballot format in primaries. See this story. The judges seem inclined to agree with the U.S. District Court that the discriminatory ballot format is unconstitutional.
Both of Nebraska’s U.S. Senate seats are on the ballot this year. There is a special election for the seat that last came up in 2020, and there is the regular election for a six-year term for the other seat.
In the regular election, no Democrat filed. But there is a strong independent candidate, Dan Osborn, who is getting on the ballot with a petition. There will also be a nominee from the Legal Marijuana Now Party. That party has a contested primary on May 14, between Kenneth Peterson and Kerry Eddy.
No Libertarians are running for either U.S. Senate seat.
In the presidential primary, there are five Libertarians on the ballot: Charles Ballay, Jacob Hornberger, Lars Mapstead, Chase Oliver, and Michael Rectenwald. Candidates get on the ballot by being mentioned in the news media.
Earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. supporters filed a petition to qualify the We the People Party in Hawaii. Kennedy created the party because the number of signatures for a new party in Hawaii is so much easier than the petition for an independent presidential candidacy.
The Hawaii State Elections office said the petition had enough valid signatures. But the Democratic Party challenged the party’s legal existence because it said two of the party’s officers are members of the Democratic Party. A hearing officer from the State Election Office conducted a hearing on that challenge on April 5. The two party officers testified that they are not members of the Democratic Party. Hawaii does not have registration by party. A decision is likely in a few weeks.
Pennsylvania voting rights groups have been joined by the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth, in an attempt to persuade the Third Circuit to rehear Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP Branches v Secretary, 23-3166. This is the case over whether the “materiality” portion of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Law should invalidate a Pennsylvania law on dates written on the outer envelopes of postal ballots. The law says if the voter doesn’t date the outer envelope of his or her returned ballot, the ballot cannot be counted. The Third Circuit last month upheld the legality of the Pennsylvania law in a 2-1 decision.
The “materiality” part of the Civil Rights Law says no one should be prevented from voting because of some error that is not really meaningful. The majority opinion of the Third Circuit says this only applies to laws that stop individuals from voting, but it doesn’t apply to whether that vote should be counted.
