See this news story about the Maine Libertarian registration drive. The story says the party has 1,000 registrants, but actually it now has about 2,000. It needs 5,000 by January 2024.
The story also refers to Maine’s “four” parties, but actually there are five that are within striking distance of being qualified, or are qualified: Democratic, Republican, Green, No Labels, and Libertarian.
On September 5, the New York Green and Libertarian Parties filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, in the ballot access case. The court will consider whether to hear the case at its September 26 conference.
John Anthony Castro is a Republican candidate for president in 2024. He filed a lawsuit in the southern district of Florida earlier this year, asking that the court rule that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to have his name placed on 2024 ballots because he is ineligible under the 14th amendment’s “insurrection” clause. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed his case on June 26. Castro v Trump, s.d. 23cv-80015. She only wrote one sentence, saying that he lacks standing without explaining why.
Generally candidates are much more likely to have standing, when the candidate challeges the ballot position of an opponent, than a voter does.
Castro has now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the district court. Castro v Trump, 23-117. The U.S. Supreme Court has put the case on its September 26 conference.
Normally Castro would be required to appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, but he argues that the issue is too important, and the time too short, for a U.S. Court of Appeals to hear the case. Castro is acting as his own attorney. He had earlier asked the Eleventh Circuit to let him file electronically in the U.S. District Court, because the U.S. District Court had now allowed him to use the electronic filing procedures. Court rules don’t let pro se applicants use the electronic filing system unless the court allows it, and the U.S. District Court did not give permission. The Eleventh Circuit also refused to let him file electronically. Thanks to Ken Bush for the news about Castro’s lawsuit. Castro lives in Mansfield, Texas. Here is his U.S. Supreme Court filing.
On September 5, a 3-judge U.S. District Court struck down Alabama’s U.S. House district boundaries. Singleton v Allen, 2:21cv-1291. The vote was 3-0. Because this was a 3-judge court, any appeal goes straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is considered very likely that the state will appeal.
Assuming the decision holds up, the petitioning period for any independent or unqualified party to run for U.S. House will necessarily be shortened. Under a published U.S. District Court decision from Alabama, Hall v Merrill, 212 F.Supp.3d 1148 (2016), when the normal petitioning period is substantially shorter than usual, the state must cut the number of signatures.
Here is the 217-page Singleton opinion. Two southern states have had their U.S. House districts struck down in the last two days; the Florida decision came out on Saturday, September 3.
The Missouri Democratic Party has released its plan for its party-administered presidential primary in 2024. The polls will only be open between eight a.m. and noon on March 23, because it costs a lot of money to hire people to administer the polls, and the limited hours will cost less money. People can also vote by mail, if they request a mail ballot by March 12, and if they have registered as a Democrat on their voter registration form.
Also, Democrats are letting 17 year-olds participate, if they will be age 18 by the general election.
Missouri is in its first year of letting voters register into a party. The procedure for doing this was passed in 2022 and took effect January 1, 2023. So far the Secretary of State is not releasing any data about how many voters have registered into each party. The bill that set up the procedure was HB 1878. For government-administered primaries, whether a voter has registered into any particular party has no bearing on whether that voter can or cannot vote in any particular primary. Thanks to Ken Bush for the news about the Democratic presidential primary.
