On May 17, a New Jersey state trial court declined to remove LaMonica McIver from the Democratic primary ballot in the 10th district. She had been challenged on the basis that all of her 1,081 signatures were collected by one individual in approximately 72 hours. The challenger said it was not possible that one person could have collected that many, but there was no proof presented in court that the petitioner didn’t collect them all. See this story.
An Illinois state trial court will hold another hearing on Tuesday, May 21, in Collazo v Illinois State Board of Elections, the case over the new Illinois law that deprives qualified political parties of their ability to nominate someone after the primary is over. The Republican Party, which filed the case, seeks a preliminary injunction against the new law. The Illinois Democratic Party is seeking to intervene in the case in support of the law.
At the first hearing in the case, on Friday, May 17, the judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order, but given the fast action coming up concerning a possible injunction, that point is moot.
On May 17, the Missouri legislature adjourned. SJR 74, which would have made it more difficult for constitutional initiatives to win, did not pass. The bill, a proposed constitutional amendment, would have said that constitutional initiatives need a majority of the vote statewide and also need to get a majority in over half the U.S. House districts.
Three petitions for new or previously unqualified parties are being submitted in North Carolina this year: We the People, Constitution, and Justice for All. We the People supports Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for president. Justice for All supports Cornel West for president. See this story.
Already on the ballot are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Parties.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., needs to be at 15% in national polls by June 20 in order to qualify for the CNN presidential debate. Specifically, he needs to be at 15% in polls from four organizations. Polls from 13 organizations will be considered. He doesn’t need to be at an average of 15% in all of them; any four polls will count. The poll can be either 15% of the registered voters, or 15% of the likely voters.
Polls from these 13 organizations are eligible: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, NY Times-Siena College, NPR-PBS-News-Hour, Marist College, Quinnipiac University, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
