The Minnesota petition deadline for independent presidential candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, is Tuesday, August 23. Already the Secretary of State has acknowledged that three petitions are valid: Socialist Workers, Green, and Legal Marijuana Now. See the state’s list here.
The only ballot-qualified parties in Minnesota are Republican and Democratic. Thanks to Rick Lass for the link.
Does Minnesota allow substitutions?
No, not even for vice-president. Back in 1980, when John Anderson used Milton Eisenhower as his stand-in for vice-president, replacing him with former Wisconsin Governor Pat Lucey on August 27, Anderson’s petitioning was almost complete. But unluckily, Anderson hadn’t petitioned yet in Minnesota, because back then the deadline was mid-September and he had waited to start Minnesota. So there is no precedent for Minnesota on this. The Minnesota Secretary has refused to allow the Greens to substitute for v-p.
We have cases saying it is unconstitutional not to allow unqualified parties and independent candidates to substitute, from South Dakota 2014, Alaska 2014, Virginia 1989, Florida 1996, plus three John Anderson court victories from 1980. On the other side there is the horrible First Circuit opinion from 2009 saying Massachusetts need not allow it.
It says that the Green VP is Howie Hawkins.
Right, Howie Hawkins was the stand-in and Minnesota won’t let the party show the actual nominee. I am sorry it wasn’t possible for the Green Party to sue Minnesota over this. Minnesota election laws are in need of lots of improvements. This is just one problem. A bigger problem is the vote test, which is 5%, yet the median requirement of the 50 states is only 2%. Another problem is the insanely difficult full party petition in Minnesota, which has existed since 1913 and has never been used statewide. It requires a petition of 5% of the last vote cast. Still another problem is the very short petitioning window for independent candidates for office other than president. It is only 2 weeks.
I guess the LP is still petitioning, and they have decided to wait until the deadline to turn everything in, rather than submitting them in piecemeal fashion. Everything I’ve read indicates that they have enough raw signatures, they are just going for a cushion.
I hope Hawkins runs for President in 2020.
I was under the impression that Socialist Equality Party had qualified on its own line in Minnesota and its candidates picked up on the Natural Law Party Line
The Natural Law Party is only on in Michigan.
You may be thinking of the Minnesota IP. They named Evan McMullin.
The Natural Law Party, which now only exists in Michigan, nominated the Socialist Party ticket.
So the deadline has officially passed now?
… Yeah, it looks like Darrell isn’t on in Minnesota.