Arizona Secretary of State Won’t Let Green Party Presidential Nominee on Ballot, Despite Court Ruling from 1996 that Says the Contrary

On June 7, the Arizona Secretary of State said the Green Party cannot be on the ballot in November for President, because the party missed the deadline for submitting the names of presidential elector candidates. At the time the decision was made, the Secretary of State did not know that in 1996, when the Libertarian Party was also late with its Arizona electors, a judge reversed the Libertarian exclusion.

On June 8, the Secretary of State’s office became aware of the 1996 decision, but says it still won’t reverse its stance, and that the Green Party will need to file a lawsuit. The 1996 case was Arizona Libertarian Party v Hull, Maricopa Superior Court, cv96-13996. The basis for the 1996 decision was that (1) the state had no interest in setting such an early deadline for presidential elector candidates; (2) the evidence showed that when the Democratic and Republican Parties miss such deadlines, they are always forgiven. Instances known to exist when the Democratic and Repubiican Parties missed such deadlines are from Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Texas.

The Arizona Green Party chose presidential elector candidates in March 2016, but due to a slip-up, didn’t submit their names by last week’s deadline.

Pennsylvania Ballot Access Bill Passes Senate Committee

On June 8, the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee passed SB 495. This is Senator Mike Folmer’s bill to ease ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. It says that if a party has registration of at least one-twentieth of 1% of the state total, it would be a qualified minor party, and would nominate by convention. The idea is based on Delaware’s law. For independent candidates, the bill lowers the number of signatures from 2% of the winning candidate’s vote in the last election, to exactly 2,000 for statewide office, and lesser numbers for other office.