The Knoxville News Sentinel has reported that the Green Party is running two candidates for the state house in the Knoxville area, and that they will be the only opponents in the general election to the incumbents. See this story, from a television station’s web page, which refers to the newspaper story.
The Secretary of State’s web page refuses to list any Green Party or Constitution Party nominees for the November election, so far. The state is hoping to persuade the 6th circuit to remove those two parties and their nominees from the ballot. The 6th circuit has said it will not act on the state’s request until at or after the hearing on July 25. In the meantime, the parties and their candidates are on the ballot, and it seems petty for the Secretary of State to refuse to list the candidates.
This is clearly anti-democratic. The state clearly has an interest in encouraging more involvement and participation not less. We are having similar issues here in Oklahoma with the entrenched establishment wanting to hold on to their power. I am trying to get the Justice Party recognized to get Rocky Anderson on the ballot but the only way is to get the law changed. The Libertarians got the signatures they needed but our election board is trying to use a technicality to exclude them. The http://justiceparty.nationbuilder.com/ is for free and open elections.
#1, actually, the Libertarians only got about 80% of the signatures they need in Oklahoma. The party is suing against the March 1 petition deadline. Every deadline precedent (and there are 51 wins on that issue) agrees that petition deadlines can’t be that early. The Oklahoma Libertarian Party lawsuit is going slower than normal because the state’s expert witness is out of the country until the end of July, and he has been out since early June.