On July 10, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1091, one of two omnibus election law bills that passed the legislature this year. Among other things, it moves the independent presidential petition deadline from early June to early September. The new deadline will be 60 days before the November election.
The bill also makes it legal for out-of-state circulators to work on independent presidential petitions, but no other kind of petitions.
Arizona now is tied for having the second latest deadline for independent presidential candidates. Only Vermont has a later deadline, and North Dakota is tied with Arizona. If this bill had been in effect in 2008, it is likely that the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, could have qualified in Arizona. The only independent presidential candidate who actually qualified in Arizona in 2008 was Ralph Nader (the Green and Libertarian Parties were ballot-qualified, so their presidential candidates had no need to use the independent procedure). The Arizona independent procedure permits use of a party label.
Arizona made this change because Nader won his lawsuit (filed in 2004) in late 2008, in the 9th circuit.
Arizona is the 4th state in which a state has changed its statutory election law because of a ballot access lawsuit won by Ralph Nader.
Another Ralph Nader victory for candidates of the future and those who wish to vote for them and their platforms.
Arizona is abusing the court ruling. It was meant for all types of petitions. Someone needs to go to court to get clarification on this matter.
“CaliforniaScreaming Says:
July 11th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Arizona is abusing the court ruling. It was meant for all types of petitions. Someone needs to go to court to get clarification on this matter.”
Yeah, this is BS. The court ruling applies to all types of petitions.
What is it going to take to straighten this out?
Either a new lawsuit on behalf of (1) an independent candidate for some office other than president; or (2) a lawsuit on behalf of a group doing an initiative; or (3) a political party that is petitioning to get on the ballot.
Or possibly in 2010 some Arizona legislator might introduce a bill to fix the problem.