On January 9, the Maine Secretary of State determined that the Libertarian Party is now a qualified party. It needed 5,000 registered members and as of the January 2 deadline, it has at least 5,168. Some are still being processed so there will be more later.
The party is free to have a presidential primary if it wishes, but presidential candidates would need 1,000 signatures of registered Libertarians or registered independents.
On Monday, January 8, 2024, US District Court Judge Donald Nugent (Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division) ruled that Ohio’s voter identification laws do not severely burden Ohio’s voters and upheld their constitutionality.
Kennebec County Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy has set oral arguments for Wednesday, January 17, in Trump v Bellows, augsc-at-24-01. However, former President Donald Trump filed a request on January 8 to postpone the argument until after the U.S. Supreme Court hears the somewhat similar Colorado case.
Maine’s Secretary of State, and the voters who challenged Trump in Maine, oppose the request to postpone the argument.
All qualified parties in Maine nominate by primary, and all qualified parties are entitled to a presidential primary. But No Labels Party doesn’t want its own presidential primary, so the state won’t hold one. See this story.
Filing for the Illinois primaries closed on January 5. For president in the Republican primary, the only candidates who filed are Ryan Binkley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump. Candidates need 3,000 signatures. Vivek Ramaswamy did not file.
Democrats who filed are Joe Biden, Frankie Lozada, Dean Phillips, and Marianne Williamson.
No presidential petition was challenged except for Trump’s petition. Objectors do not challenge the number of signatures he filed. But they challenge him because he did not sign the loyalty oath, which says that candidates are not affiliated with a Communist organization and that they will not work to overthrown the government. That oath has been declared unconstitutional many times in the past but it remains in the Illinois election code.
