The Portland Press Herald has this comprehensive story about the Green Party in Portland, Maine. Oddly, however, it doesn’t mention that in November 2016, Maine voters will be voting on an initiative to use instant runoff voting for all state and federal office (except President).
On Sunday, November 22, Donald Trump said on a television interview program that if the Republican Party does not treat him fairly, he would consider running as an independent, even though he signed a pledge some months ago saying he would not do that. See this story.
As reported earlier, John McAfee has formed the Cyber Party and is its presidential nominee. The vice-presidential nominee is Ken Rutkowski of California. Rutkowski is well-known because of his radio program, Business Rockstars. It has a greater audience than any other radio show concerned with business.
Other minor party nominations this month that had not previously been mentioned at BAN are:
1. Workers World Party, Monica Moorehead for President and Lamont Lilly for Vice-President.
2. American Freedom Party, vice-presidential nominee is Tom Bowie.
3. Independent American Party, presidential nominee Farley Anderson (no v-p nominee yet).
Jill Stein has met the legal requirement for primary season matching funds in nine states: California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. She needs eleven more states to be eligible.
November 20 was the deadline for presidential candidates to file in New Hampshire. Thirty Republicans filed, and twenty-eight Democrats filed. By contrast, in 2012, 31 Republicans filed and 14 Democrats filed. Candidates need no petition; they merely pay a fee of $1,000.
The New Hampshire Secretary of State encourages many candidates to file, because the more candidates file, the more revenue the state receives. Gardner even sometimes telephones lesser-known presidential candidates and encourages them to file.
Yet when the Libertarian Party sued New Hampshire over ballot access, the state claimed that the restrictive rules were needed to keep the ballot from being “cluttered.” In 2014, New Hampshire was one of five states with no minor party or independent candidates for any statewide office. The others were Alabama, California, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania (and Washington had no statewide offices up).
Here is a link to the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s page. Under “election information” click on “candidates filed.”
