On December 11, John Anthony Castro, the Republican presidential candidate who has filed many lawsuits to keep former President Donald Trump off various ballots, dismissed his California case. Castro v Weber, e.d., 2:23cv-2172. It had been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Dale Drozd, an Obama appointee.
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.
According to this story, at least two candidates will be seeking to get on the ballot for President of Russia as independent candidates. They are incumbent Vladimir Putin, and Yakaterina Duntsova. Each needs 300,000 signatures because neither is running as the nominee of a qualified party. A qualified party must have some legislators. Putin could have been a party nominee but he is choosing to run as an independent.
The election is March 15-17.
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 15, the Kansas Supreme Court unanimously reinstated a lawsuit against a 2021 law that makes it a crime if someone gives someone the impression that he or she is an election official. League of Women Voters of Kansas v Schwab, 124,378. Here is the opinion. The lower court had said the plaintiffs don’t have standing, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
