It had been looking as though Alabama was going to be the only state with a statewide ballot access monopoly for Democrats and Republicans in November 2006. It had seemed as though every other state with a statewide partisan race on the ballot would have at least one minor party or independent candidate on the statewide ballot.

But now, there is even hope that Alabama will have a third choice in a statewide race this year. The Libertarian Party is energized and working very hard to obtain the 41,012 valid signatures needed to get on the ballot. This energy comes from the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Loretta Nall, who is a natural campaigner with great appeal. The deadline is June 6.

A lawsuit is pending against that deadline. U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson received all the briefs in late 2004, and we have been waiting for his opinion ever since.

On May 10, the Louisiana House Governmental Affairs Committee Passed HB 927, the bill to award the state’s electoral college votes to whomever gets the most popular votes nationwide. The vote was 6-4. Democrats have a majority in both houses of the Louisiana legislature, and a Democratic Governor.

A similar bill in Illinois failed to pass, and the legislature has now adjourned for the year. A similar bill in Missouri cannot pass this year (because it failed to move ahead in time), unless the substance of it gets amended into another bill that does pass.

Supporters of the idea say they will have bills in all states next year.

The Idaho Statesman, the state’s largest newspaper, has scrapped its old policy of only covering Democratic and Republican candidates (for office other than president) in advance of the Idaho primary. This year’s primary is on May 23. The paper is now covering minor party and independent candidates equally. This result was achieved after Andy Hedden-Nicely (United Party candidate for US House) had called for a boycott of the newspaper.

The United Party of Idaho has ballot status through the Natural Law Party. The Secretary of State has still not ruled on whether he will let the Natural Law Party change its name to the United Party. He says he is too busy to decide until after the primary. Idaho has permitted party name changes in the past.