On December 16, the Detroit News published a story that says the Michigan straight-ticket device will make it difficult for No Labels to poll a high share of the vote if No Labels runs someone for president in 2024. The story says that year after year, between 55% and 60% of Michigan voters use the straight-ticket device.

The article is a rare acknowledgement that straight-ticket devices injure minor party and independent candidates. The article is behind a pay wall, but here is a link. The only other states with straight-ticket devices are Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

No Labels leader Pat McCrory was interviewed on Detroit’s Channel 4, and he said that in Michigan, No Labels will not qualify as a party, but instead will put its eventual presidential nominee on the ballot in Michigan as an independent. There is no straight-ticket device for independent candidates. Furthermore, independent candidates in Michigan appear on the ballot below all the party nominees.

on December 15, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows held an eight-hour hearing on whether she should bar former President Donald Trump from the Republican presidential primary ballot. See this story. She says she will decide by December 22. Trump is represented in the hearing by the same attorney who argued his Colorado case, former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

On December 13, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken, a Clinton appointee, refused to enjoin a new Oregon election law that prohibits legislators from running for re-election if they had at least ten unexcused absences from the legislative session. Linthicum v Wagner, 6:23cv-1624. Here is the opinion. The law is part of the Oregon Constitution and was passed by the voters in 2022.

The opinion cites an 1880 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that says Congress even has the power to criminally publish members of Congress who refuse to attend sessions of Congress.

The Republican State Senators who filed the lawsuit could still possibly get on the May 2024 Republican primary ballot, however, if they win their state case that says the law is being misinterpreted and cannot affect them until the 2026 election. The Oregon State Supreme Court heard that case on December 14. It is Knopp v Griffin-Valade, S070456.