On May 7, the Montana Secretary of State relaxed the requirement that initiative petition sheets need to be notarized. The ruling says initiative petition blanks can be e-mailed to anyone who wants one. The recipient can then print the petition, as well as second verification form, and can sign both and return it to the initiative sponsor. Here is the ruling.
On May 11, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont cut the number of signatures for candidate petitions to 70% of the normal requirement. He also extsended the deadline by two days. The order applies both to primary petitions and general election petitions.
For general election petitions for president, this cuts the number from 7,500 to 5,250. The deadline moves from August 5 to August 7.
The order also suspends the need for notarization of petition sheets. Thanks to several people for this news.
The Libertarian and Green Parties were already on the ballot for president, which is the only statewide race up this year. But it affects most of their nominees for U.S. House and legislature and local partisan office. The Secretary of State had recommended that the Governor also say that if a party is on the ballot for at least one statewide race, then it is on for all partisan office this year. But the Governor did not promulgate that idea. This is especially disappointing to the Working Families Party and the Independent Party, which are on for most statewide offices, but not president.
According to this story, all four Republicans running for Utah Governor want to return to the old nomination system, in which no one can get on a Republican primary ballot unless he or she wins substantial support at a party meeting. Even Jon Huntsman, who got on the primary ballot this year via a petition, favors ending the petition alternative.
Montana requires all qualified parties to nominate by primary. According to this story, both candidates in the upcoming Green Party U.S. Senate primary are really acting on behalf of one of the two major parties. Dennis Daneke, one of the two candidates, says if he wins the primary, afterwards he will withdraw, because he supports the Democratic Party and doesn’t want a Green candidate on the general election ballot for U.S. Senate. The other Green primary candidate for U.S. Senate, by implication, is running because in her heart she favors the Republican Party, and she wants a Green on the November ballot.
The Green Party says neither candidate is a bona fide Green. If the state allowed small qualified parties to nominate by convention, then the Green Party would have control over whether or not it wants to run someone for U.S. Senate. A convention is always free to decide to run no one for a particular office. This is one more example of why mandatory primaries for small qualified parties are a bad idea.
The New Hampshire Libertarian Party has told the press that it will soon file a lawsuit over ballot access during the health crisis. See this story.
