On October 18, the Pennsylvania House amended SB 224 so that it moves the 2024 primaries from April 23 to April 16. The House then passed the bill by 104-99. However, leaders of the Senate say they don’t support the amended bill. If nothing passes, the April 23 date will remain, even though it conflicts with Passover.
On October 19, a Pew Research Poll was released, that asked voters if they wish there were more parties to choose from. Those in their 20’s who strongly or somewhat desire more parties amount to 79%. But among voters over age 65, only 51% are in that category. See here.
On October 17, U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones denied Georgia’s request to uphold the state’s U.S. House districts, before there is even a trial. Therefore, the trial will proceed, possibly in January 2024. Here is the court order in Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:21cv-5338.
On October 18, Christina Pascucci announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate from California. She is a Democrat and has potential to poll a sizeable vote. See this Politico story.
On October 18, leaders of the ballot-qualified Independence Party of South Carolina announced that the party is merging with the Forward Party (which is not on the ballot) and the South Carolina Independence Party will change its name to the Forward Party.
This makes the third state in which the Forward Party is ballot-qualified. The other two are Florida and Utah.
The South Carolina Independence Party was originally put on the ballot in 1996 and was named the Reform Party. It changed its name to Independence in 2004.
In 2004 it nominated Ralph Nader for president, and in 2016 it nominated Evan McMullin for president. Those are the only two elections since it ceased being the Reform Party in which it had presidential nominees.
South Carolina makes it very easy for qualified parties to remain qualified. They just need to run at least one nominee for some federal or state office every four years. The state’s policy of letting parties change their names has been helpful to new parties in the past. When the Natural Law Party decided to cease to exist, the South Carolina Natural Law Party kindly changed its name to the Green Party, so that the Green Party became qualified in South Carolina.
