On May 15, the Libertarian Party National Committee filed a lawsuit against the ballot-qualified Libertarian Party of New Mexico for trademark infringement. Libertarian National Committee v Libertarian Party of New Mexico, 1:26cv-1562. The lawsuit does not sue the Secretary of State of New Mexico. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Strickland, a Biden appointee. Here is the Complaint.
In Wisconsin, all qualified parties nominate by primary. So even when a minor party is ballot-qualified, members of that party must submit petitions to be on their own party’s primary ballot. The Green Party is a qualified party. This year the only Green Party member who filed a petition for a statewide office is Pete Karas, who filed 2,840 to run for Secretary of State in the Green Party primary. The requirement is 2,000 signatures.
Karas needs to poll at least 1% in the general election, or the Green Party will lose its qualified status.
On May 29, an individual who has held office in the Democratic Party challenged the Karas petition, on the grounds that Karas used an obsolete petition form. In April, a few days before the start of petitioning, the state altered the petition forms so that now it says the circulator is a resident of Wisconsin. The old form did not say that, because until this year, out-of-state circulators were legal. But under a new law, out-of-state circulators are no longer permitted to work in Wisconsin, except they make work on presidential petitions.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission will hear the challenge on Tuesday, June 9. Karas is submitting affidavits from his circulators that they are each Wisconsin residents.
CalMatters has this detailed story about how the California top-two system affects the major parties. It does not mention minor parties.
On June 2, the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 2491. It moves the presidential primary from late April to early March. An identical bill has already passed the House.
UPDATE: on June 4 the bill passed the Senate.
On November 4, the New Jersey Elections office posted a list of general election candidates. Here is the U.S. Senate list. Neither the Libertarian Party candidate, nor the Green Party candidate, submitted a petition. The only minor party whch did submit a petition is the Socialist Workers Party. Also, two independent candidates submitted a petition. The requirement is 2,000.
