On January 22, independent Louisiana voter Jeffry Sanford filed a state court lawsuit against the new Louisiana election system for congressional elections. See this story. The bill that set up the new system, HB 17, is on the Governor’s desk, but the Governor hasn’t signed it yet. But because the Governor suggested the bill, it seems certain that he will sign it.
The lawsuit is Sanford v Landry, 19th judicial district court.
Indiana Representative Ryan Dvorak (D-South Bend) has again introduced his bill to greatly ease petition requirements for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. His HB 1324 lowers the statewide petition from 2% of the last vote cast for Secretary of State, to exactly 250 signatures.
He introduced the same bill in 2022, but it did not make any headway.
Evan McMahon, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Indiana, told Bill Redpath that the bill won’t even get a hearing in the Republican Party-dominated legislature.
On January 22, the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission rejected a challenge to Former President Donald Trump’s spot on the Republican presidential primary ballot. The Commission said the law does not allow challenges to presidential primary candidates. Here is a link to the ruling. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
The Arizona Secretary of State has released the registration tally as of January 1, 2024. See it here. Percentages are: Republican 34.58%; Democratic 29.55%; Independent and miscellaneous 34.38%; Libertarian .79%; No Labels .63%; Green .06%.
As the October 2023 tally, the percentages had been: Republican 34.33%; Democratic 29.76%; independent and miscellaneous 34.59%; Libertarian .80%; No Labels .45%; Green .08%.
The January 1 tally of election years determines the number of signatures needed for statewide independent candidates, .3% of the number of registered voters who are not in a qualified party. We can now know that the 2024 independent requirement will be exactly 42,303.
No Labels registration is growing so rapidly, it seems very likely that it soon will have enough registrations to remain on the ballot into years beyond 2024. To stay on the ballot a party needs registration of two-thirds of 1% of the state total. Thanks to Eric Wong for the news about the new tally being released.
Not filing a Statement of Economic Interests cost numerous candidates of both the Republican and Democratic parties their ballot access, but the Alabama GOP continues to deny potential primary candidates ballot access due to past support of non-Republican candidates.
