On April 11, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party filed a lawsuit in state court, asking that their petitions for ballot access in 2012/2014 be ruled to have enough valid signatures. The case is Libertarian Party of Maryland et al v Maryland State Board of Elections, in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.
The complaint points out these flaws in the recent validation process: (1) the petition has a place for a signature and a printed name. If the signer used a middle name or initial in his or her printed name but not the signature, or vice versa, the signature was invalid; (2) if the signer used a different form of his or her first name in the signature line versus the printed line, the signature was invalid (for example, printing Margaret but signing Peggy); (3) if a signer signed twice and the first time was invalid, but the second attempt would have been valid, neither the first nor second attempt was considered valid; (4) if the circulator varied his or her name (as in points #1 or #2 above) the entire sheet was invalid; (5) the state changed the wording on the petition slightly during the petition drives, and sheets with the old wording were rejected; (6) and, as is the case for almost all petitions, sometimes signatures were invalidated even though they were clearly valid.
Any nominating petitions for the MD Donkey/Elephant robot party hacks ???
Different or EQUAL problems for them ???
No petitions needed in Maryland for Republican or Democratic candidates. They get on the primary ballot with no petition, by paying a small filing fee.
#2 Gee – more separate and UN-equal stuff.
What sayeth the Civil War dead in MD ???
The Constitution Party has not yet submitted their signatures for scrutiny. They are looking for volunteers to collect signatures, b/c rules set forth by the Democrats & Republicans require other parties to collect signatures for ballot access, thus not being able to directly challenge their re-election/ candidacy. Even though the 3 parties don’t agree on many things, depending on the outcome of this court challenge, I’d like to see all 3 get together for the common cause of ballot access or collecting signatures. Marylanders deserve more than Dems/ Reps to choose from.
You say other parties are un-electable, they have no track record. Right, no track record, no experience raising taxes, taking away civil liberties, passing unnecessary laws thus eliminating the possibility of civil reimbursement, they have no track record of doing anything you complain about your government doing.
I enjoy the heads up. I am wanting to be a candidate for US Senate 2012.
I Baltimore County MD.
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