The Washington Times has this story, saying the North Carolina First Party failed to obtain the required 85,379 signatures to be on the ballot in 2010 and 2012. May 17 was the deadline. Here is the AP story, which is more detailed.
The story does not mention that the party is free to continue circulating and submit the signatures when it is finished, and then it would be on the ballot in 2012. The story also does not mention that the party could probably win a lawsuit against the May 17 deadline. North Carolina parties nominate by convention their first year on the ballot, so there is no state need for the deadline to be so early. The independent candidate petition deadline this year is June 10. Thanks to Doug McNeil for the link.
Well, they always have the Green Party
The Green Party has never been on the ballot in North Carolina, nor has any Green ever qualified in North Carolina using the independent candidate procedure.
While I hope them the best, I hope that their decision to run an independent, since they seem to have the money to get the signatures possibly, does not end up causing the the court in Bryan E. Greene, et al v Gary O. Bartlett, et al to side with the state or consider the law to be not so difficult since it was used (if it actually happens), compared to how it currently stands, with there not being one independent candidate to qualify for the NC ballot for the US Congress since 1901 with the state-printed ballot.
They could qualify for the 2011 elections, though there are very few partisan races in NC in odd-numbered years. The largest such races are the Charlotte municipal races. But that would give them a chance to develop some name recognition before heading into the 2012 state and federal elections.
The most telling comment: Signs that the movement might be losing momentum emerged several weeks ago when organizers for the proposed party stopped returning phone calls. Officials for SEIU, SEANC and North Carolina First did not return phone calls Monday.
The SEANC executive director never returned my calls for the article on wrote on examiner.com.
Makes me questions whether this was even a serious attempt at party formation, or just a stunt by the unions to scare the Democrats.