As reported earlier, some of the Green and Libertarian candidates for statewide Ohio office failed to qualify for the primary ballot of their own parties, because their petitions were determined to lack 500 valid signatures. Therefore, the two parties have filled those vacant slots with new write-in candidates in the primaries. Ohio law doesn’t permit a candidate who tries and fails to get on a primary ballot to then file as a write-in. Therefore, the parties had to recruit different individuals to run. See this story.

Nick Troiano, 24, has set up an exploratory committee for a possible independent race for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 10th district. He had been Unity ’08’s College Coordinator, and had been the Communications Manager for Americans Elect. His advisory committee for the congressional race includes Professor Charles Wheelan, a Dartmouth Professor who had advocated in favor of a new party called the Moderate Party. It also includes Russ Verney, Ross Perot’s campaign chairman in both 1992 nd 1996. And it includes Larry Norton, a former general counsel to the FEC.

Troiano’s early political activism included local activity in favor of freedom of information; see this story about that from 2009.

The Tenth District is strongly Republican. In 2012 its vote for U.S. House was: Tom Marino, Republican, 179,563; Philip Scollo, Democrat, 94,227. The district is physically large and includes the small-population counties of the center of Pennsylvania, as well as the counties in the northeast corner. Troiano will need 3,592 signatures by August 1.

South Dakota has released a new voter registration tally. The percentages, as of February 7, are: Republican 46.24%, Democratic 34.72%, Libertarian .25%, Constitution .08%, independents 18.71%. Americans Elect has 7 registrants.

In November 2012, the percentages were: Republican 45.99%, Democratic 35.85%, Libertarian .21%, Constitution .07%, independents 17.88%. Americans Elect had 4 registrants. Thanks to Andrew for this news.