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.
On December 27, the Texas Republican Party said the initiative petition for secession is invalid. Texas does not have the statewide initiative for state laws or constitutional amendments, but Texas does permit statewide advisory initiatives on partisan primary ballots. Such petitions for the Republican Party in 2024 require 97,709 signatures. A group that supports secession from the United States submitted 139,000 signatures.
The party says the initiative petition was due on December 10, the day before the candidate filing petition deadline. December 10, 2023, was a Sunday, and the Republican Party’s office, which is the place to submit the petitions, was not even open that day. The group supporting the initiative believes the deadline is December 11, and submitted the petition that day.
Also, the party also says most of the signatures were electronic, and disputes that such signatures are valid.
The sponsors of the initiative say they will file a lawsuit to valid their petition. The lawsuit will need to move fast; the primary is March 5. See this story. Thanks Jim Riley for this news.
On December 21, U.S. District Court Judge Irene C. Berger, an Obama appointee, dismissed John Anthony Castro’s lawsuit on whether Donald Trump should be on the West Virginia Republican presidential primary ballot. Castro v Warner, s.d., 2:23cv-598. Here is the decision.
No one is yet on the West Virginia Republican primary ballot, which will be held May 14. Castro asserted that he will be on the ballot. The decision assumes that is true, but says because his campaign is so weak, he doesn’t have standing. Castro has appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
