On September 7, the Michigan Secretary of State told the Michigan Libertarian Party that the party cannot replace its original presidential nominee, Gary Johnson of New Mexico, with a new nominee (Gary Johnson of Texas) because there is “no provision” for that. However, in 2000, Michigan let the U.S. Taxpayers Party replace its vice-presidential nominee with a new vice-presidential nominee.

The U.S. Taxpayers Party changed its name to the Constitution Party at its 1999 national convention, but in Michigan, the party still uses its old name, the U.S. Taxpayers Party. On October 1, 1999, the party’s national convention chose Joseph Sobran for vice-president. Sobran resigned as the nominee on March 31, 2000. On September 2, 2000, the national committee of the party replaced him with Dr. J. Curtis Frazier. Michigan printed Frazier’s name on the ballot, even though the original certification by the party had listed Sobran.

Michigan, like all states, also let the Democratic Party choose a new vice-presidential nominee in 1972. A book about that was published this year. It is “The Eighteen-Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign Crisis” by Joshua M. Glasser.

Also, in 1980, Michigan let the Anderson Coalition Party choose a new vice-presidential nominee in early September. The party’s original vice-presidential nominee was Milton Eisenhower, but he resigned and was replaced with Patrick Lucey, after the original certification.

And, in 1996, Michigan let the Reform Party choose a new vice-presidential nominee, also in September. The Reform Party, a ballot-qualified party in Michigan, had certified the names of Ross Perot for President and Carl Owenby for Vice-President, to the Michigan Secretary of State, shortly after Perot won the party’s presidential nomination on August 17, 1996. But on September 11, the Reform Party replaced Owenby (who had been considered a stand-in) with Pat Choate, and Michigan printed Choate’s name on the November ballot.

This year is the first presidential election since 1964 in which no independent presidential candidate petitions succeeded in Mississippi. The state only requires 1,000 valid signatures, due in September. The only such petition submitted this year was for Jill Reed for President and Tom Cary for vice-president, but the petition lacked enough valid signatures. Reed lives in Casper, Wyoming and campaigns as the nominee of the Twelve Visions Party. She is on in Colorado but not in any other state.

Mississippi allows groups to become qualified political parties, simply by demonstrating that they have party officers in the state. Therefore, most of the nation’s nationally-organized political parties enjoy party status in Mississippi, and don’t need to use the independent petition procedure. Mississippi’s law on how parties get on the ballot was passed in 1890 and has never been amended. The law shows that, at least for small-population states, there is no need for restrictive ballot access laws for political party ballot access.