This Boston Herald newspaper story describes the coalition that is beginning to fight Question Three, the Massachusetts top-two primary initiative.
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On August 21, Cornel West, who was an independent presidential candidate in 2024, asked a U.S. District Court to strike down the Pennsylvania law that requires minor party and independent presidential candidates for presidential elector to file elaborate paperwork, and yet which does not require anything to be signed by presidential elector candidates for parties that have 15% of the registration. The brief says there are no facts in dispute and that summary judgment is justified. The laws in question kept the Constitution Party, the Party for Socialism and Freedom, and West off the ballot in 2024. The case is West v Pennsylvania Department of state, w.d., 2:24cv-1349.
On August 26, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Working People Party and the America First Party may be on the ballot. Nebraska Republican Party v Evnen, S-26-687. Both new parties had faced challenges, based on their names. The Working Families Party wanted to block the Working Peoples Party on the grounds that their names are too similar, even though the Working Families Party is not on the ballot in Nebraska. The Republican Party wanted to block the America First Party on the grounds that “America First” really refers to Republican ideas.
The court said the challenge to the Working People Party was filed too late, and the challenge to the America First Party has no basis in the law. Here is the decision.
On August 24, South Dakota asked the Eighth Circuit to rehear Dakotans for Health v Johnson, 25-2940. This is the lawsuit over the petition deadline for initiatives. The Eighth Circuit on August 11 had struck down the February deadline.
Jonathan Bernstein, a political scientist, author, and reporter, here says that Massachusetts voters should vote against Question Three, the top-two initiative that is on the Massachusetts ballot.
Bernstein does not mention the point that the Massachusetts initiative is badly drafted so as to make it far more difficult for a minor party to retain qualified status.