The New York Conservative Party will formally choose a presidential nominee on September 8. No one believes there is any suspense about the decision. The Conservative Party has never nominated anyone for President who wasn’t also the Republican Party nominee.
On August 15, Jill Stein submitted, or is about to submit, petitions to be on the ballot in Montana and Idaho. Both petitions are considered to be independent candidate petitions. In Montana, though, the state will print “Green” next to Stein’s name on the ballot, assuming the petition had enough valid signatures. In Idaho, the label will be “independent” because Idaho doesn’t allow any other label for independent candidates.
Assuming the Idaho petition is valid, this will be the first time the Green Party presidential nominee, or any Green Party nominee for any partisan office, has ever been on the ballot in Idaho. In 2000, Idaho was one of the seven states in which Ralph Nader did not qualify. The Idaho ballot access laws for independent presidential candidates were eased in 2011, as a result of Ralph Nader winning a lawsuit against the old number of signatures. That lawsuit was Daien v Ysursa, won in 2010.
Rocky Anderson, presidential candidate, also expects to qualify as an independent in Idaho. Ballot-qualified parties in Idaho are Democratic, Republican, Constitution, and Libertarian. Ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.
On August 14, the Wisconsin state elections office determined that Jill Stein (Green Party presidential nominee) and Jerry White (Socialist Equality Party presidential nominee) should be on the November ballot, even though their slate of presidential elector candidates did not include at least one resident of each U.S. House district. The office made this decision based on a 2004 precedent from the State Supreme Court that Ralph Nader had won.
Independent Political Report has the details about the Pennsylvania challenge process this year. See here, and also read the first comment which expands the post.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has just made a donation to help fund the lawsuit Stein v Chapman, the ballot access lawsuit pending in Alabama. The lawsuit challenges the March petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties in presidential election years. So far, the judge has denied injunctive relief, but the matter of whether the deadline is constitutional or not is not settled.
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