On October 29, a zoom meeting was held to organize a political party in New Mexico that is in alignment with the Libertarian National Committee. The existing ballot-qualified Libertarian Party in New Mexico and the national committee are estranged from each other.

Although the new party desires to qualify for the ballot, it cannot start to circulate a petition until it chooses a name. The new group is tentatively calling itself the Free Libertarian Party, but the group is aware that state law won’t permit that label. The law says, “No political party shall adopt any party name or party emblem which is the same as, similar to, or which conceivably can be confused with or mistaken for the party name or party emblem of any other qualified political party in New Mexico.”

The existing ballot-qualified Libertarian Party in New Mexico nominates by primary, so it is possible for members of both groups to engage in contested primary battles in the primary, should they desire to do so.

On October 27, a Florida State Appeals Court removed a local initiative from the ballot in Orange County. Florida Association of Realtors v Orange County, 5D22-2277. The vote was 2-1. See this story. The initiative concerns rent control.

Because the ballots have already been printed and voting is already underway, it is impossible to physically remove the initiative from the ballot. Instead the votes will not be counted.

On October 26, a three-candidate debate was held in North Dakota. The three candidates for U.S. Senate (a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent) debated each other. See this story.