On November 1, the Ohio Secretary of State issued a directive, putting the Americans Elect, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Socialist Parties on the 2012 ballot. The directive isn’t posted on the Secretary of State’s web page yet, but can be seen here. This post has been updated.
On October 31, the North Dakota Libertarian Party filed this 12-page rehearing request in Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger, 10-3212. The issue in the lawsuit is whether a state may require a small qualified party to attract as much as 15% of the primary voters to choose that party’s primary ballot, if it wants to have nominees for the legislature on the November ballot.
One of the peculiar aspects of the North Dakota primary vote test requirement is that it is so much harsher for legislative candidates, than candidates for Congress or statewide state office. The primary vote test for statewide office is 300 votes, which means the statewide candidates need an average of about 6 voters within each legislative district to choose the minor party’s primary ballot. But if that same party wants to have a legislative candidate on the ballot in November, the number of voters within that legislative district to choose that party’s primary ballot can be as high as 130 voters, i.e., over twenty times as high as the test for statewide candidates.
The Reno Gazette-Journal has this lengthy, detailed story about how the Nevada Republican caucus of February 4, 2012, will be run. Participants must have been registered in the Republican Party no later than mid-January 2012. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for the link.
Ever since last year, the federal government has been suing New York state over its non-compliance with the 2009 law that requires states to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before any federal election or any primary for federal office. The case is U.S.A. v State of New York, 10-cv-1214, northern district. On October 31, the state again asked the judge to postpone deciding the case until the state legislature acts to move the September 2012 primary to an earlier month. See this story.
States with mid-September primaries can’t comply with the federal law, so almost all states have now eliminated such late primaries. As the story says, the legislature hasn’t acted yet because the Assembly wants the primary in June and the State Senate wants it in August. This issue has nothing to do with New York’s presidential primary, which has a separate election date, April 24, 2012.
Filing for the South Carolina Republican presidential primaries closes at 5 p.m., eastern time, on November 1. The primary is expected to include these nine candidates (in alphabetical order): Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.
As in New Hampshire, ballot access in the South Carolina Republican primary is by filing fee. The South Carolina Republican presidential primary filing fee was $25,000 for those candidates who filed months ago, and $35,000 for those who filed more recently.
Over the weekend of October 29-30, the Idaho Democratic Party formally decided to continue to permit all registered voters to choose a Democratic Party primary ballot. See this story. The decision was expected. The Idaho Democratic Party have been critical of the Republican Party for having sued the state to obtain a closed Republican primary.