On September 15, the Iowa ACLU sued Iowa on behalf of the Green and Libertarian Parties, to overturn state practices that force all voters to register as Republican, Democratic or Independent. Iowa is one of only two states that doesn’t have a blank line on the voter registration form, in the “political party” question. The other is Kansas. The case is Iowa Libertarian Party et al v Culver, federal court, 4:05cv-521. Minor parties have won on this issue in New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Colorado, but lost in Iowa and North Carolina. However, the losses in Iowa and North Carolina were many years ago, before the age of computerized voter registration records.
What does it take for a candidate to get his or her name listed on the federal ballot for president in each of the fifty states? Can a candidate list a vice-presidental candidate as a ‘stand in’ and promise to pick one of the candidates from the mainstream as his or her vice president, if elected?