The New York Daily News has this editorial on New York election laws. Toward the bottom, it condemns the 2020 law that made it far more difficult for parties to become and remain qualified. The editorial specifically says the SAM, Green, and Libertarian Parties belong on the ballot. However, it celebrates that recent bill that makes it illegal for parties to have “Independence” or “Independent” as part of their names. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.

It is unfortunate that the New York Times has not editorialized about these issues.

A Seattle initiative to use Approval Voting for elections for city office has enough valid signatures. If the City Council doesn’t pass the measure, the voters will be asked to decide whether to use that system. See this story. Thanks to Eric Wong for the link.

Recently, Republicans challenged the ballot access petitions of Libertarians running for congress in two states, with differing results.

In Jersey, the challenge knocked Clayton Pajunas off the general election ballot. See this story. He was running for U.S. House, 7th district. That is considered a close contest. Pajunas submitted 72 signatures, and needed 50, but the challenge left him with only 47 valid signatures.

In Wisconsin, where the Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified and nominates by primary, a primary candidate running for U.S. House needs 1,000 signatures to get on a primary ballot. In the U.S. House, 8th district, Jacob VandenPlas submitted 1,200 signatures, and the Elections Commission initially determined he had 1,073 valid. His petition was challenged, but the result of the challenge process was that he had 1,027 valid, so the challenge was defeated.

The 8th district is considered an overwhelmingly safe district for the Republican Party, so it is not clear why there was any motivation to challenge VandenPlas. No Democrat is running.