Nevada state law says major parties will hold presidential primaries on February 6, 2024. The Nevada Republican Party would rather use a caucus to select delegates, and has been in state court trying to stop the state from holding a Republican presidential primary. So far the party has not prevailed.

However, the party has another method to stop the Republican presidential primary. The law says no primary will be held unless there are at least two candidates from that party. The party intends to hold a caucus on the evening of Thursday, February 8. It has promulgated a rule saying any candidate who files for the presidential primary is ineligible to participate in the caucus. Because it is the caucus that actually assigns delegates, it is somewhat plausible that no Republican will file for the primary, and therefore the primary will be cancelled. See this story.

Here is a story about Virginia Senate Democratic Party candidate Trudy Berry, whose name may not be on the ballot in the 9th District in November 2023 due to an email address error that led to candidate paperwork not being filed on time. Ms. Berry is appealing to the Virginia Board of Elections for relief.

The Virginia Senate is composed of 40 single member districts, which are all elected in years immediately preceding Presidential elections. The Virginia House of Delegates is composed of 100 single member districts elected every odd numbered year. Virginia Governor, Lt. Governor (which are elected in separate elections), and Attorney General are elected in years immediately following a Presidential election.

On Monday, August 14, 2023, US District Court Judge James Sweeney, a Trump appointee, ruled that Indiana’s petition requirement of 2% of the last total vote for Secretary of State for a party to put a statewide minor party or independent candidate is constitutional. Indiana Green Party v Sullivan, 1:22cv-518. The 2024 petition requirement is 36,944 signatures.

The decision is only ten pages. It says that because the 2% petition was upheld in 1985, therefore it is valid. It does not say that when the 2% petition was upheld in 1984, the petition deadline was in September. Since then it has moved to June.

The decision also does not say that when the 1985 opinion was issued, the law had only been in effect for one election year, and the 1985 opinion said that in the future if the record shows that the requirement is too difficult, there might be a different conclusion.

Judge Sweeney did not mention the fact that twice, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that if a ballot access requirement is almost never successfully used, it is probably unconstitutional. Judge Sweeney did mention that no one has completed the statewide petition since 2000, but he seemed to find this fact insignificant.

It is almost certain that an appeal will be filed. Indiana is one of only four states in which the Green Party presidential nominee has never been on the ballot. The others are Georgia, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

The Libertarian Party was a co-plaintiff, but the Libertarian Party has been on the ballot continuously in Indiana since 1992, so the meaningful plaintiff is the Green Party.