The Arizona Green Party petition has now been checked by the various county elections officials, and the county totals reveal that the party has more than enough valid signatures. The news won’t be official until the Secretary of State adds up the county totals; the official announcement is likely on Friday. This is the first time a new party petition has succeeded in Arizona since 2000. It is also the third time the Green Party has qualified as a party in that state. The other times were in 1992 and 2000.
If the Green Party can boost its registration up to two-thirds of 1% of the state total (approximately 14,500 members) by November 2009, then it can remain on the ballot. The Arizona Libertarian Party has its registration up that far, and that is why it has been on the ballot continuously since 1992.
Based on the latest voter registration counts, see http://www.azsos.gov/election/voterreg/Active_Voter_Count.pdf, there are nearly 2.7 million registered voters, meaning that 2/3 of 1% is around 18,000 voter registrations.
Of course, due to some attrition (and possible the Ron Paul factor), if the Arizona Libertarian party does not add over 1,000 registered voters by Nov. 2009, we’ll risk losing ballot status as well.