The Boston Globe has this article about Americans Elect, which contains a serious misstatement of fact about ballot access laws. The story says 22 states do not permit a new political party to start petitioning, registration drives, or other tasks involving getting on the ballot until January 1 of the election year. Actually, there are only nine states that do not permit ballot access work for a new party to begin until the election year.

The nine states are Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. What is most disappointing about the article is that it even misrepresents Massachusetts election law. The only method for a group to transform itself into a qualified party before any given election in Massachusetts is for it to persuade 1% of the state’s registered voters to enroll into that group, on voter registration forms. This route to the ballot has existed since 1990, and it is so difficult, it has never been used. It requires all these registered voters by November of the odd year before the election. This is one of two state ballot access requirements that is so difficult, even Americans Elect isn’t attempting it. Obviously, since Massachusetts requires the group to get approximately 40,000 registered members by November 11, 2011, the registration drive must be accomplished in the odd year before the election year. Yet the Boston Globe story says Massachusetts is a state that “does not allow the process to begin until after the year of the general election.”

Massachusetts also has procedures to get independent candidates on the November ballot by petition, but the petition must contain the name of a candidate. The Massachusetts policy on whether stand-ins are permitted on this petition is hopelessly murky. The Secretary of State permitted it in 1980, 1996, 2000, and 2004, but refused in 2008.