In 2021, the Arizona legislature moved the independent presidential petition deadline from 60 days before the general election, to 80 days before the general election. The change was made in an omnibus election law bill, SB 1492.
This is the sort of legislative change B.A.N. tries to report, but this change was not noticed by me until recently. The 2024 presidential petition deadline is August 17, 2024.
On November 20, the Arizona Secretary of State filed this brief in No Labels Party v Fontes, 2:23cv-2172. This is the case over whether anyone may file in the No Labels primary to run for Congress or partisan state office. The law of Arizona says members of any qualified party may file in their own party’s primary. No Labels does not want anyone in Arizona or any other state running for Congress or state office. No Labels filed the lawsuit, seeking a court order to bar candidates from filing in its August 2024 primary for any office.
The Secretary of State’s brief repeatedly stresses that No Labels was free to have placed its eventual presidential nominee on the general election ballot using the independent petition method. Arizona is one of the 25 states that lets independent candidates choose a ballot label other than just “independent”, and the secretary stresses that the No Labels presidential candidate, with the independent procedure, would have been free to have “No Labels” next to his or her name.
The latest voter registration data from states that have partisan registration show that almost 60,000 people are registered in the No Labels Party. One wonders if the leaders of the party are planning to let their registrants have any influence in the upcoming decision on whether to run for president, and whom to run.
On November 20, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced its general election debate dates and locations. All debates will be held at particular colleges.
The dates and cities of the three presidential debates are: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas; October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia; October 9 in Salt Lake City.
The vice-presidential debate is September 25 at Easton, Pennsylvania. See this news story for more details.
Capital University law professor and Ballot Access attorney Mark Brown writes in today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer that the fix will be in should anyone try to exclude Donald Trump from the ballot in Ohio in 2024 due to Republican Party dominance of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of its government.
