A hearty thank you to Tim Thornburn of San Francisco, for giving Ballot Access News a new computer, and for installing it. The old one, seven years old, was giving hints that it wasn’t long for the world. Also thanks to David C. Johnson of Milpitas, California, and Jerry Kunz of San Francisco, for replacing my printer and installing the new printer. Also thanks to Eric Garris, for being the webmaster and for posting the print version of the newsletter month after month. Finally, thanks to Chet Chin and Tim Brace of San Francisco, for month after month helping fold the newsletter.

Also, to all those kind people who have invited me to link up on Facebook and other similar sites, I do appreciate it, but I have never accepted the invitation. Facebook seems to think I registered before, but since I have no memory of doing that, I don’t know my password. Facebook says it will e-mail me my password, but it never does. I think it has a wrong e-mail address for me. So if you have invited me into Facebook, and I didn’t respond, that is why.

The Nation has this essay about election law problems in the United States. It is written by editor Katrina vanden Heuvel. It was posted on July 1 and will be in the next print edition. It comes close to criticizing restrictive ballot access laws, but does not actually do so. Part of the article has a subheading, “End the Party Duopoly” but that part of the article only talks about proportional representation and Instant-Runoff Voting. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.

On June 30, the Committee for a United Independent Party asked the U.S. District Court in Idaho to intervene in Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa. The lawsuit, filed in April, seeks to force the Idaho state government to administer a primary system for the Republican Party that excludes non-members. The intervenors acknowledge that the Idaho Secretary of State will do a good job of defending the law, but also ask the Court to permit the intervention, so that the interests of independent voters will be considered. The Committee for a United Independent Party is usually known by its acronym, CUIP, and is headquartered in New York.