On July 21, a third federal lawsuit was filed against the new Louisiana ballot access procedures for independent and minor party candidates who are running for U.S. Senate. Carpenter v Landry, m.d., 3:26cv-791. The plaintiff is an independent voter. The new law requires him to have completed a petition of 2,500 signatures by January 14. No one can sign who is registered into a qualified party.

All three cases are pro se, meaning the cases are filed by the plaintiffs themselves, without an attorney being involved. This new case, filed by Chuck Carpenter, does a good job of highlighting the unconstitutional early petition deadline. The other two cases are those filed by Jamie LaBranche in the middle district, and Jon Hyers in the eastern district. The two older cases have been moving slowly.

Here is the Carpenter complaint.

The Hartford Courant has this op-ed by David J. Reynolds, criticizing Connecticut ballot access laws, especially the laws that pertain to getting on a primary ballot.

In November 2026, Massachusetts voters will vote on whether to convert to a top-two system. The Boston Globe has this article about which politicians support the idea and which oppose it. Unfortunately, the article fails to mention that the initiative, if passed, would make the state’s definition of a qualified party far more difficult. Top-two proponents never even seem to notice this flaw in most of their proposals.

Currently a group can be a qualified party if it polls 3% for any statewide race. It is fairly easy for a minor party to poll 3% for offices like Secretary of State, Auditor, or Treasurer. But if the initiative passes, those offices won’t count toward party status any more. If the initiative passes, the only way a group can be a qualified party would be to poll 3% for president, or to have approximately 50,000 registered voters. The latter provision, basing party status on registration, has been in the law since 1990 and has never been used successfully. As to polling 3% for president, it is very rare for any third party to ever poll 3% for president. The only third parties that have done that nationally in the last 100 years are the American Independent Party in 1968, the Reform Party in 1996, and the Libertarian Party in 2016.