Here is a link to the Nevada presidential primary election returns.
2
On February 7, the Kansas House Elections Committee passed HB 2516. As amended, it increases the statewide independent petition from exactly 5,000 signtures, to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote. This would give Kansas the nation’s highest percentage requirement for presidential candidates running outside the two major parties. For 2024, the petition would be 20,818 signatures, which is 1.47% of the Kansas November 2020 presidential vote.
When the 2024 presidential percentage procedures of each state are compared with each other, this would give Kansas the most difficult requirement of any state. The fairest way to compare each state is to calculate the number of signatures in 2024, divided by the number of votes cast for president in 2020. Currently the most difficult percentage (using the easiest method to get on the ballot) is Wyoming, which stands at 1.40%. The only other states currently above 1.01% are California at 1.25%, Indiana at 1.22%, and North Dakota at 1.10%. Thanks to Eric Lund for this news.
On February 6, the South Dakota Green Party submitted its petition for party status. This is the first time the Green Party of South Dakota has ever submitted such a petition. The law was eased in 2018. It now requires a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. In the past the petition was 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote.
On February 6, the California Secretary of State added the We the People Party to her list of political bodies. We the People had filed on January 17. In California, when a group wants to become a qualify party by registering approximately 75,000 members, it notifies the Secretary of State, who in turn notifies the county elections offices to tally registrants in that group. The group is a “Political Body” while it is working to qualify.
An earlier version of this post had said the Secretary of State had not added We the People to her list, but that has now been solved.
We the People is a group that supports Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for president this year. The deadline is July 2024.
On February 2, U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer issued an order in Colorado Republican Party v Griswold, 1:23cv-1948. He denied the Republican Party’s request for an injunction against the semi-closed primary as it pertains to the Republican Party. Colorado law says independents may vote in a party primary unless that party’s state central committee, by a 75% or more vote, does not want independents to vote in its primary.
Although the Colorado Republican Party doesn’t want independents to vote in its primary, there isn’t 75% support for exclusion in the party committee. The judge might have ruled differently if the law allowed no means for the party to bar independents from its primary. The judge also noted that there is little evidence that allowing independents to vote in the Republican Party actually changes the outcome of the contests. Here is the Order.