Dr. Eric Ostermeier, at his Smart Politics blog, here notes that the Libertarian Party set a new record for its gubernatorial nominee in seven states.
6
On November 7, the Alabama Secretary of State appealed Greater Birmingham Ministries v Merrill, 22-13708, to the Eleventh Circuit. This is the lawsuit over access to certain Alabama voter registration records. The U.S. District Court had ruled against the Secretary of State. The plaintiff, a voting rights group, had asked for lists of persons removed from the registration rolls because of a felony conviction, lists of persons whose voter registration application was rejected because of an earlier felony conviction, and lists of people purged from the rolls immediately after the 2020 election.
For the first time, the Green Party is circulating a petition to be a qualified party in South Dakota. As a result of a 2018 lawsuit, the number of signatures is 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, whereas in the past it was 2.5%.
No Labels, which holds itself out as an entity that is not a political party but which may put an independent centrist presidential candidate on the 2024 ballot, is busy qualifying itself as a party. On November 25 it released a video that mentions its petitioning progress so far: Alabama 80,000; Alaska 6,000; Arizona 46,000; North Carolina 23,000; Ohio 123,000; Oregon 23,000.
Here is the YouTube. When Alabama is mentioned, the screen says 80,000 have been collected, but the narrator says the Alabama figure is 8,000.
On May 25, the New York Legislature passed A1819, which says no party may use “Independence” or “Independent” as part of its name. The legislature still hasn’t sent that bill to Governor Kathy Hochul. New York seems to be unique in the vast amount of delay between the legislature passing a bill, and forwarding it on to the Governor.