On January 2, former President Donald Trump appealed the Secretary of State’s decision that keeps him off the Maine Republican presidential primary ballot. The case is now in the Superior Court for Kennebec County.
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On January 2, the Colorado voters who sued in state court to keep Donald Trump off the Republican presidential primary ballot filed their response in the U.S. Supreme Court. See it here.
Generally, when the winners in the court below address the U.S. Supreme Court before the Court has accepted the appeal, the winners in the court below ask the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear the case. But in this instance, the winners in the court below do want the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. They request that the Court decide by January 5 whether to take the case. And they say that if the Court takes the case, they want the Court to decide the case on or before February 11.
On December 29, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, issued an opinion in Perry-Bey v Trump, e.d., 1:23cv-1165. This is a lawsuit filed by some Virginia voters to keep former President Donald Trump off all Virginia ballots. She ruled that the plaintiffs don’t have standing. Here is the opinion.
January 2, 2024, is the deadline for a group to qualify as a political party in Maine. A group or party needs 5,000 registered members to obtain or keep qualified status. Already the Democratic, Republican, Green Independent, and No Labels Party had enough registrants. The Libertarian Party’s recent new registrations give it approximately 5,400 registered members, so it is likely it is also back on the ballot.
A strong case can be made that the deadline is unconstitutionally early, based on a 2016 U.S. District Court decision that struck down the former December (of the year before the election) deadline. In response to the lawsuit decision, the legislature only improved the deadline by a few weeks, which probably still isn’t constitutional, although there is probably no group that was seriously planning to qualify as a party anyway, other than the parties that appear to have qualified.
The Legal Marijuana Now Party is the only ballot-qualified party in Minnesota, other than the two major parties. It will hold a presidential primary on March 5, 2024, the first time since 1916 that Minnesota has held a presidential primary for a party other than the two major parties.
The candidates are: Edward Forchion, Krystal Gabel, Rudy Reyes, Dennis Schuller, and Vermin Supreme.
Although there have been qualified minor parties in Minnesota during the last few decades, Minnesota didn’t hold presidential primaries in the years when those minor parties were on the ballot, such as the Reform Party, the Independence Party (which were the same party, with various name changes) and the Green Party.
Minnesota did hold presidential primaries in 2020, but the Legal Marijuana Now Party didn’t choose to have a presidential primary. Thanks to Dan Vacek for this news.