The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina newspaper, The Sun News, has this story in its May 16 edition about the North Carolina First Party. The petition deadline is May 17, and the party needs 85,379 valid signatures. Even though the story says the party has 120 petitioners, the story also says the party only has 86,000 signatures, which will not be enough unless there is a super-human push this weekend.

However, under a State Board of Elections ruling issued a few years ago for the Libertarian Party, the signatures can be supplemented and turned in later this year, or even next year, and they will count for 2012. Also, it is very likely the party could win a lawsuit against the May 17 petition deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mandel v Bradley, in 1977, that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional when virtually no group or candidate ever meets the requirement. No statewide independent except Ross Perot, and no party except the Libertarian and Reform Parties, has ever met the 2% North Carolina statewide petition requirement, and that requirement has existed since 1983. There is no important reason for the deadline to be in May, because North Carolina doesn’t give a primary to new parties anyway. The independent candidate petition deadline is June 10 and there is no practical reason why the two deadlines should differ.