On February 27, Rev. Adam Hamilton said that he is considering becoming an independent candidate for U.S. Senate from Kansas this year. See this story. Hamilton’s church, a United Methodist Church, has 22,000 members. Hamilton is the author of over 50 books.
The Catoosa County, Georgia, Republican Party has been trying to win a court order that allows it to exclude candidates from its primary ballot if the party believes the candidates are not bona fide members of the party. However, on February 25, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Ray II, a Trump appointee, mostly ruled against the party. Here is the Opinion.
The judge did keep alive the party’s claim on a lesser issue. The party had wanted to place some ballot questions on its primary ballot, asking Republican voters what they thought about the party’s desire to exclude candidates from its own primary. Georgia law permits such ballot measures on party primary ballots, yet the County Board of Elections had not printed the questions on the 2024 ballot. The court order allows a trial to proceed on that issue.
For the first time, the Party for Socialism and Liberation is attempting to get on a statewide ballot in a midterm year. It has candidates for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts and Ohio. The Massachusetts candidate, Joe Tache, needs 10,000 signatures and will probably be the only choice on the ballot other than the two major parties, assuming he gets on the ballot.
The Ohio candidate, Greg Levy, needs 5,000 signatures. There will be no party label on the ballot next to his name, assuming he gets on the ballot. Ohio law lets independent candidates choose “no party” or “other party”, but won’t allow an actual party label. An independent candidate is also free to have no label whatsoever, and most petitioning candidates in Ohio choose the option of no label.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation in the past has not tried to get on ballots in midterm years.
Here is an interesting story about the problems that have cropped up in Eastland County, Texas, after the county and the Republican Party decided to count ballots by hand in the upcoming March 3 Texas Republican primary.
U.S. SUPREME COURT BOOSTS RIGHT TO AN ACCURATE VOTE TALLY
On January 14, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bost v Illinois State Board, 24-568. It ruled that candidates have automatic standing to challenge election laws that, in the opinion of the candidate, result in slightly inaccurate vote totals. It doesn’t matter if the perceived problem affects the determination of who had won the election or not. Accuracy is intrinsically valuable and essential, for its own sake, even if it is obvious who won the election.
The vote was 7-2, with dissents from Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.
The case had been filed in 2024 by an Illinois Republican Congressmember Michael J. Bost. He is noted for always winning overwhelmingly, sometimes with over 75%. He complained about an Illinois law that says postal ballots are valid as long as they arrive within 14 days of the election.
