Another Libertarian Qualifies for Alabama Legislative Race, After He Proves that He Did Have Enough Valid Signatures

Posted on by July 3, 2018
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The Alabama Libertarian Party now has a second legislative candidate on the November ballot, after the Secretary of State agreed that he does have enough valid signatures. The candidate is Elijah Boyd, running in the 10th district. The initial determination was that he was seven signatures short, but he and his activists were able to show that several dozen signatures had been improperly invalidated. See this story, which mentions that he is on the ballot, but which does not say that he had to fight to validate his petition.

Bloomberg News Publicizes Attempts by Influential People to Create a New Party, “Serve America Movement”

Posted on by July 3, 2018
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Bloomberg News has this story about a new political party, so far named the Serve America Movement, or SAM. The group already has one candidate, Stephanie Miner, who is petitioning onto the New York ballot as a candidate for Governor.

The proposed party is backed by some influential people, and has been underway since early 2017. The group’s web page is joinsam.org. The web page says the group supports the top-two system, but that stance may change. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Carries Op-Ed Criticizing the State’s Ballot Access Laws

Posted on by July 4, 2018
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The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has this op-ed by Chris Holbrook, criticizing the state’s restrictive definition of “political party.” The state requires a statewide vote of 5%, whereas the median vote test in the 50 states is 2%. Minnesota is one of only eight states with no ballot-qualified parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The others are Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. Thanks to Dave Cummings for the link.

Indiana Petition Deadline Passes; No Independent or Unqualified Parties Qualify for Any Statewide Race, nor Any U.S. House Race

Posted on by July 3, 2018
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The Indiana petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, has passed. No such petition for any statewide office, or any U.S. House seat, succeeded. Here is the list of candidates for November.

The Green Party tried to obtain the needed 26,700 valid signatures for its nominee for Secretary of State, George Wolfe, but did not get enough signatures. Wolfe has filed as a declared write-in candidate.

Independent U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Altman also failed to get enough signatures, and has filed as a write-in candidate.

No statewide petition has succeeded in Indiana since 2000, when Pat Buchanan petitioned as the Reform Party presidential nominee. There is no other state in which it has been so many years since either a statewide independent, or a newly-qualifying party, got on the ballot for statewide office. Even Americans Elect did not succeed in Indiana in 2011-2012, partly because Indiana forces petitioning groups to choose their nominees before the petition can begin to circulate.