On August 25, Quinnipiac released a poll about the presidential election. Question Ten asked if respondents think Gary Johnson should be in the debates. The response: 62% yes; 29% no; 9% undecided. Here is the poll; scroll down to question ten.
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Chris Suprun, a Texas Republican candidate for presidential elector, says if elected in November, he may not vote for Donald Trump in December. See this Politico story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
This story, and similar stories, often point out that some states have laws telling presidential electors that they must vote for the presidential candidate they had said they would vote for. These stories never point out that these laws are unenforceable. A presidential elector has the constitutional right to help choose the President, regardless of any state law. A state may punish such an elector, but a state can’t tell him or her how to vote.
Three states say that presidential electors who are “faithless” are deemed to have resigned, and are instantly replaced by the other electors from that state. But if the entire state delegation casts “faithless” votes, that law won’t work, because then that state wouldn’t have any electors.
The Tennessee Secretary of State says that five independent presidential petitions have enough valid signatures:
1. Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
2. Jill Stein (Green Party)
3. Rocky De La Fuente (independent)
4. Alyson Kennedy (Socialist Workers Party)
5. Mike Smith (independent)
The Secretary of State rejected these six petitions:
1. Darrell Castle (Constitution Party)
2. James Germalic (independent)
3. Kyle Kopitke (independent)
4. David Limbaugh (independent)
5. Evan McMullin (Better for America)
6. Emidio Soltysik (Socialist Party)
Some of these results had already been announced. It is very surprising that Darrell Castle’s petition was rejected. It contained 500 signatures, and was circulated by motivated volunteers. Castle lives in Tennessee. He will be seeking to re-validate signatures. The Secretary of State says Castle’s petition only had 232 valid signatures. The requirement is 275 signatures.
Mike Smith lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Here is his web page.
Jim Hedges petitioned in Tennessee, and probably had enough valid signatures, but just before he submitted his petition, two of his presidential elector candidates changed their mind and said they would not serve, and they refused to sign the candidacy document.
On August 25, the Montana Secretary of State said both presidential petitions submitted this year are valid. They are for Jill Stein and Rocky De La Fuente. The law requires 5,000 signatures due August 17. Stein will have the “Green” label next to her name.
The qualified parties in Montana are Democratic, Libertarian, and Republican.
Minnesota election law requires qualified parties to file their presidential elector candidates, and an equal number of alternates, by August 29. The Republican Party has complied with this law. However, when it first nominated presidential elector candidates earlier this year, it forgot it was supposed to also nominate alternates. See this story.
When the party realized this, it called a meeting of the state committee, nominated alternates, and forwarded them to the Secretary of State by the legal deadline. However, the meeting that was called to choose alternates was in violation of the party bylaws, which say a 10-day notice is required for meetings. The party ignored that bylaw because of the time emergency. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the link.