On March 26, the ballot-qualified Labor Party changed its name to the South Carolina Workers’ Party. South Carolina allows qualified parties to change their names. The party has been on the ballot in South Carolina starting in 1996. It has never run a presidential nominee. Thanks to Scott West for this news. See the party’s facebook page.
The Flathead Beacon, in Kalispell, Montana, has this lengthy story about attempts by some Montana legislators to remove the Libertarian Party from the ballot. One bill removes the party totally; another party effectively removes it only from the 2024 U.S. Senate race. The story partly consists of an interview with Sid Daoud, state chair of the Montana Libertarian Party and a city council member in Kalispell.
The House hearing on the two bills is Friday, April 14. Both bills have already passed the State Senate.
This news story has more information about the Arizona Democratic Party lawsuit to remove No Labels Party from the ballot than any other I have seen. However, the story implies that the lawsuit involves federal campaign laws. Although the Democratic Party Complaint mentioned that, the Complaint does not ask the judge to remove No Labels on the basis of campaign laws. The sole request is that the party be removed from the ballot on the grounds that its officers filed some paperwork a few weeks too early.
Also, the story says that if No Labels is on the ballot, it may or may not run any candidates. However, assuming it gets on the Arizona ballot, the leaders of No Labels have no authority to prevent Arizona voters from filing to run for office in the No Labels Party primary, for congress and partisan state office. In Arizona, all qualified parties nominate by primary.
The lawsuit is moving slowly. According to the website of the Maricopa County Superior Court, no attorney has filed yet as the representative of No Labels.
Ballot Access News has always allowed comments on blog posts, and these comments have hugely benefited me. Sometimes the commenters point out a factual error I had made. Sometimes they alert me and all readers of relevant important news.
Lately, though, most comments are comments about other commenters. So I am thinking of a policy in which I will delete comments unless they pertain to the particular blog post. It would be best if people would just voluntarily stop making comments that aren’t about the blog post.
Iowa Representative Bobby Kauffman (R-Wilton) has introduced House Study Bill 245. Read it here. It provides that parties that hold caucuses cannot let anyone vote other than a person who physically attends the caucus. It also provides that no one may vote in a caucus who has not been registered with that party for at least 70 days prior to the caucus. The bill has a hearing in a subcommittee of the House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday, April 12. Kauffman is the son of the state chair of the Iowa Republican Party.
Parties in Iowa pay for their own caucuses, and do all the work of finding locations to hold them. Democrats have been planning to use a privately-administered system to allow persons to vote by mail in caucuses. Also traditionally Democratic rules permit anyone to join the party on caucus day. This bill appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on freedom of association for political parties. Thanks to David Sturrock for this news.
