British Minor Party, the Respect Party, Wins a Surprise Victory for House of Commons in Special Election

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On Marcy 29, Great Britain held a special election to fill a vacant seat in the House of Commons in Bradford, a city in Yorkshire. In a surprise, the Respect Party won the seat with over 50% of the vote. The ballot had 8 parties listed. The special election was needed because the Labour incumbent had resigned for reasons of health.

The Respect Party had only once before won a seat in Parliament, in 2005, but it had not won any seats in the general election of 2010. The party was founded in 2004 and the name is an acronym for these terms: Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade Unionism. The main impetus for its founding was opposition to British involvement in the 2003 Iraq war. See this story.

New Mexico Constitution Party and New Mexico Green Party Sue over Too-Early Petition Deadline

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On March 29, the Green Party and the Constitution Party jointly filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that the New Mexico deadline for petitions to qualify a party is too early. That deadline is the first Tuesday of April, which this year is April 3. Here is the complaint. The case is Constitution Party of New Mexico v Duran.

In New Mexico, newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention, not by primary, so there seems to be no election-administration reason for the deadline to be so early. In the past, the deadline for a new party to qualify in New Mexico has been in October, then September, and then July. In 1995 it was moved to April, apparently because the majority party in the legislature, the Democratic Party, was angry that in the 1994 gubernatorial election, the Green Party gubernatorial candidate had polled 10.3% and apparently caused the defeat of the Democratic Party nominee. So, in 1995, the legislature made several hostile changes to the election law relating to minor parties, including moving the petition deadline from July to April, and also doubling the number of signatures needed for non-presidential minor party nominees to get on the November ballot.

Oklahoma Says Americans Elect Petition Has Enough Valid Signatures

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The Oklahoma State Board of Elections has determined that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. This is the first time any newly-qualifying party has been recognized in Oklahoma since 2000.

The Board says the Libertarian Party has 41,070 valid signatures, which is short of the legal requirement of 51,739. The status of the Libertarian Party now depends on what happens next in the party’s lawsuit, which challenges the March 1 deadline, and also challenges the due process problem that the 2011 legislation that moved the deadline deprived the party of its legal right to have one year to complete the petition drive.

Missouri Bill Advances, Would Require Presidential Nominees of Parties to Furnish Birth Certificate

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On February 28, the Missouri House gave preliminary approval to HB 1046. The bill had passed the Rules Committee on March 8. It still hasn’t passed the House on third reading. It requires political parties to provide copies of birth certificates for their nominees for President and Vice-President. It also requires birth certificates for declared write-in presidential candidates. Oddly, it does not require birth certificates for independent presidential candidates. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Ohio Libertarian Polled Enough Write-in Votes in Primary to Qualify for U.S. Senate in November

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John Fockler, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, has received at least 750 write-in votes in the March 6, 2012 Libertarian primary, and probably over 800. He needed 500 write-ins to qualify to be listed on the November ballot. The election night primary returns had shown him with only 407, but election night returns for write-in candidates are invariably not accurate.

His name wasn’t printed on the primary ballot because he would have needed a petition of 500 valid names, and people who had voted in a 2010 primary (other than the 2010 Libertarian primary) were not eligible to sign. Also, because the state changed the date of its primary from May to March at the very end of 2011, there wasn’t much time for candidates to collect signatures on primary petitions. Thanks to Kevin Knedler for this news.