Recently Indiana county election officials finished validating the petition to place Jill Stein on the ballot as the Green Party nominee. They said only 40% of the signatures are valid, and therefore she is short 9,000 signatures. However the results are suspect, because Stein had the same paid circulators as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and he was told his validity rate was 60% and therefore sufficient.

Signers can sign multiple petitions for the same office in Indiana. The Green Party will try to do a re-validation process.

No Green Party presidential nominee has ever appeared on the Indiana ballot. 2024 is the first time the party have made a big effort in a statewide Indiana petition.

On July 16, a Montana state trial court issued a Temporary Restraining Order in a lawsuit over which voters can sign petitions. Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights v Jacobsen. The TRO prevents the Secretary of State from rejecting signatures on petitions who are inactive voters. Inactive voters are those who are on the registration rolls, but who have not voted in the last two elections.

The rationale for letting inactive voters sign petitions is that the very act of them signing the petition and listing their address is a means for them to establish that they are still at the address that had been listed for them in the records. Montana had permitted them to sign petitions until recently, when the Secretary of State had reversed that policy and said they are not eligible to sign.

The Secret Service began protecting some presidential candidates in 1968. The first minor party or independent presidential candidates who ever received such protection were John G. Schmitz, 1972 nominee of the American/American Independent Parties, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, 1972 nominee of the Peoples Party. Eugene McCarthy received such protection in 1976. John Anderson received it in 1980.

Ross Perot did not want such protection in 1992 nor in 1996. He had his own security and did not want the federal government to constantly know where he was.

Thanks to Eric Garris, Darcy Richardson, Theresa Amato, and Clay Mulford for help with this post.