Ohio has decided not to appeal the injunction that was granted in U.S. District Court earlier this week. The injunction said that any adult may circulate an independent candidate petition in Ohio. Therefore, it is now completely safe for minor party and independent presidential candidates to use any circulators, regardless of the residence of the circulators, in Ohio.

This would be true as well for independent candidate petitions for office other than president, except those petitions were due back in March 2008.

On June 3, the group that favors using Instant-Runoff Voting for St. Paul, Minnesota, city elections, submitted its initiative petition. Assuming it has enough valid signatures, the voters will vote in November. Thanks to Rob Richie for the news.

The Manhatten Branch of the Libertarian Party of New York is likely to nominate Francis M. Powers, age 47, for the U.S. House seat, 13th district. The 13th district is centered on Staten Island. The incumbent, Republican Vito Fossella, is not running for re-election.

What makes this newsworthy is that the Republican nominee for the same seat will probably be Frank H. Powers, who is the father of Francis M. Powers. See this article. The Libertarian local nominating convention is June 9. The younger Powers says he is not running in order to damage his father; instead, he says he is running to reduce the chances that the Republicans can keep the seat. If by any chance the Libertarians don’t nominate him, he says he will run under an Anarchy ticket. In either case, he needs 3,500 signatures by late August in order to be on the November ballot.