On January 12, the Vermont Secretary of State said ten Republican presidential candidates qualified for the Republican primary, and four Democrats qualified for the Democratic primary. See the list here.
Never before had more than seven candidates qualified for a Vermont Republican presidential primary.
The Progressive Party and Liberty Union Party are eligible for a presidential primary as well, but no one filed for those parties. Those two parties are still free to nominate a presidential candidate for the general election ballot. Generally the Progressive Party does not participate in presidential elections, although it did nominate Ralph Nader in 2000.
Huckabee’s not bothering to pay the nominal fee to get on the Vermont ballot is a sign he’ll be going the way of Walker, Jindal, Perry, Graham et. al three weeks from today, if not sooner.
Well, it also takes a petition in Vermont.
For the Progressives and Liberty Union, is there a procedure that they need to follow to place a candidate on the ballot for the general election, or can they just ask/instruct the Secretary of State/whomever to do it because they’re major parties?
The Dem, Rep, Progressive & Liberty Union Parties just tell the Sec. of State whom to list for president and vice-president. After the major parties hold a national presidential convention, the secretary of the convention sends a notarized form to all state election offices, saying these are our nominees for president and vice-president. That way the states know the exact form of the names to print on the November ballot. For instance, in 1976, the Dem certificate to all states listed “Jimmy Carter.” South Carolina and Virginia Election Boards at first said they would print “James Earl Carter”, and Carter and the Dem Party had to threaten to sue those states to make them print “Jimmy.”
The Huck and Gilmore miss another one. Sure Huck will drop out after Iowa. Gilmore i have no idea why he has not dropped out already
Interesting, thanks Richard.
Does the fact that the Progressives and Liberty Union are not national parties not matter in this case? Would an officially-recognized state-wide convention work for their purposes as well?
Parties are free to have presidential nominees whether they are nationally-organized or not. In all 51 jurisdictions with presidential electors, the true election in November is for the voters to choose presidential elector slates. A U.S. presidential election in November is really 51 separate elections. So whether a party has a national organization or not is irrelevant. All qualified parties in all states have an equal right to nominate candidates for presidential elector and have them on the ballot. Generally November ballots don’t list the candidates for presidential elector, but the ballots generally say, “Vote for presidential electors” and then list the presidential candidates, who are on the ballot as markers for various slates of elector candidates.