The Arkansas Secretary of State has removed Tom Hoefling from the presidential ballot, because his independent petition did not list a vice-presidential nominee. Hoefling is the America’s Party presidential nominee. When he circulated his Arkansas petition, he did not yet know who his running mate would be.

It is odd that the Secretary of State checked Hoefling’s petition, found it to be valid, and said on August 11 that Hoefling would be on the ballot. One would think that if the petition was insufficient because it didn’t list a vice-president, this would have been obvious when the petition was handed in, and it would have been rejected at that time.

Arkansas let independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson switch vice-presidential nominees in 1980. However, back in 1980, Arkansas did not require any petition for an independent presidential candidate. Such candidates got on the Arkansas ballot simply by writing a letter. This was true for the period 1980 through 1996. Before 1980 Arkansas had no procedures for independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot. So there are no previous precedents concerning vice-presidential substitution for Arkansas independent petitions.

It is unfortunate that Hoefling did not know that he could have circulated a minor party presidential petition in Arkansas, a petition that needs 1,000 signatures (the same requirement as for independent presidential petitions, with the same August 1 deadline). That petition need not name any candidates; it just names the party and asks that it be qualified for the presidential election.

Arkansas acted in a similar way for Rocky De La Fuente as well. First the state checked his petition, and listed him on the web page, but later the Secretary of State removed him because De La Fuente had run in the Arkansas Democratic presidential primary this year.