This Politico story says that leaders of No Labels have given some indication that No Labels won’t enter the 2024 presidential race if the Republican Party nominates someone other than Donald Trump.
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The Libertarian Party’s Ballot Access Committee held a meeting on Monday, June 12, 2023. From that meeting come these petition drive updates:
Arkansas: 3,740 total signatures to date, 1,900 of which have been gathered by volunteers. 10,000 valid signatures are needed, with a deadline of February 13, 2024.
North Dakota: The petition drive is getting underway with a volunteer effort to date. No reported numbers yet.
Ohio: The LP will be doing an Independent petition for its presidential ticket, needing 5,000 valid signatures, with an August 2024 deadline. A stand-in presidential ticket has been selected and the selection of presidential electors is nearing completion. When that is done, the petition drive will start.
North Carolina has a State Board of Elections, and county boards of election. The law says all members of these boards must be registered members of one or the other of the two largest parties. A federal lawsuit is currently pending against the exclusion of independents. Common Cause v Moore, m.d., 1:22cv-611.
The defendants are trying to get the case dismissed without the need for a trial. The latest brief was filed on May 30, by the plaintiffs, who argue that they do have standing and that the court deserves a trial. Read it here.
On June 12, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion in State ex rel One Person, One Vote v Ohio Ballot Board, 2023-Ohio-1928. This is a lawsuit over the wording of the ballot measure that will be on the ballot in August 2023, making it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot and also making it more difficult for them to pass.
The ruling upholds the wording that says the measure “Elevates” the number of signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The plaintiffs had argued that “elevates” implies an improvement. They argued that the ballot should say that the measure “increases” the number of signatures, but the Court said “elevates” and “increases” mean the same thing. That part of the ruling was 4-3. The Court did order a few changes in the wording, but those changes aren’t as important as the issue of which verb to use. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the news about the decision.
On June 8, the New Hampshire House tabled CACR 9. It had passed the State Senate earlier unanimously. It is a proposed constitutional amendment saying the New Hampshire presidential primary should be the first such primary in the nation.
If it had passed the legislature, then the voters would have voted on it in November 2024. Perhaps legislators realized the amendment was toothless. Nothing in the New Hampshire Constitution can alter the dates of presidential primaries in other states.
Another bill relating to the presidential primary was tabled in the New Hampshire legislature last month. It was SB 271, and it said New Hampshire delegates to presidential conventions must be seated and have complete voting rights. This is another example of a toothless idea; the state of New Hampshire has no right to determine the rules of national political party conventions. The bill had been motivated by a fear that the Democratic Party might penalize New Hampshire delegates if the date of New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary in 2024 violates national party rules.