According to this story, a petition is circulating to qualify the Tea Party for the Michigan ballot. However, the story also says that the same petitioning company that is circulating this petition has worked in the past for the Democratic Party. The story does not interview any leader of the drive to qualify the party, so it is difficult to know. In most states, a petition to qualify a new party must contain the name and contact information for at least one officer of the proposed new party. Unfortunately, Michigan petitions do not do that. The petition has a postal address but no names of party officers. The address appears to be P.O. Box 23, Richville, Michigan. Richville is in the “thumb” area of the Michigan “hand”, east of Saginaw.

Even if the party gets on the ballot, if it doesn’t hold a state convention and nominate candidates, the effect of the petition would be nil. Thanks to Mike Feinstein for the link.

In 2004, Colorado Democrats paid to ballot-qualify two new parties for the ballot, the Gun Owners Rights Party, and the Pro Life Party. As in Michigan, new qualified parties in Colorado nominate by convention. Even though the two parties qualified in Colorado, they never called any convention and never nominated any candidates. After the 2004 and 2006 elections were over, the two parties were removed from the ballot for having failed both the vote test and the alternate registration test.