In April 2006, the Alabama legislature passed HB 51, which was intended to move the presidential primary from June to February. However, the bill was drafted so that it actually moves the primary for all office, not just president, to February. Since the petition deadline for minor parties and independents candidates (other than president) is tied to the date of the primary, that had the indirect result of moving the petition deadlines to February. Already various minor parties and independent candidates have a case in the 11th circuit against the June deadline. In 1991 the 11th circuit had struck down Alabama’s then deadline of April, so clearly the new law is unconstitutional. The legislature has gone home for the year and can’t fix the problem until next year.
Didn’t one of the judges also rule recently that the various Alabama minor parties could collect signatures which would apply to all the minor parties? Did anything ever come of this?
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, there is no timetable for collecting signatures, so theoretically signatures for 2008 can be collected now.