On August 15, Jill Stein submitted, or is about to submit, petitions to be on the ballot in Montana and Idaho. Both petitions are considered to be independent candidate petitions. In Montana, though, the state will print “Green” next to Stein’s name on the ballot, assuming the petition had enough valid signatures. In Idaho, the label will be “independent” because Idaho doesn’t allow any other label for independent candidates.
Assuming the Idaho petition is valid, this will be the first time the Green Party presidential nominee, or any Green Party nominee for any partisan office, has ever been on the ballot in Idaho. In 2000, Idaho was one of the seven states in which Ralph Nader did not qualify. The Idaho ballot access laws for independent presidential candidates were eased in 2011, as a result of Ralph Nader winning a lawsuit against the old number of signatures. That lawsuit was Daien v Ysursa, won in 2010.
Rocky Anderson, presidential candidate, also expects to qualify as an independent in Idaho. Ballot-qualified parties in Idaho are Democratic, Republican, Constitution, and Libertarian. Ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.
Did the CP attempt to qualify in Montana? I know they nominated Ron Paul in 2008, but I was unsure of their status with the national party.
The Constitution Party is no longer ballot-qualified in Montana because it didn’t meet the vote test in either of the last two elections. This year, the state chair said, after praying about it, that she didn’t want the party to be ballot-qualified this year.
Thanks for that info regarding the CP of Montana. It makes no sense to me but whatever.
Stein could make a MT county go red from blue like Nader did in 2000 where a county went for the green by 15%
@4. Only Rasmussen is polling in Montana now I think so take it with a grain of salt, but they have Romney beating Obama 51% to 42%.
Of course, maybe Johnson will take 9% from Romney, putting Obama in the lead. But maybe Stein will take 1% from Obama and put Romney back in the lead.
I don’t know what the solution to this plethora of choices could be. Maybe Obama should withdraw now and let Romney have Montana. Romney can give Nevada to Obama, then they’ll be even. The whole election could be done this way, with the duopoly competing without any distractions in Oklahoma only.
The Stein appears to have gotten a late start in Montana, so you wonder if she had the volunteers out there.
#6, the Stein campaign has paid circulators who did the job in those two states, and other states as well.
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