The deadline has now passed for independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, to submit petitions in the District of Columbia. The Libertarian Party submitted the only presidential petition.
The three ballot-qualified parties in D.C., which did not need to submit a petition, are the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties.
Virgil Goode, the Constitution Party presidential candidate, will appear on the Washington state ballot. The Secretary of State’s office had already validated all the other presidential petitions this year, but did not finish validating the Constitution Party petition until August 9. Thanks to Gary Odom for this news.
The petitions that had already been validated in that state are Libertarian, Green, Justice, Socialist Workers, and Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The Knoxville News Sentinel has this story about the August 9 order of the Sixth Circuit, concerning ballot status for the Green Party and the Constitution Party. UPDATE: see this AP story, especially the very last sentence, which seems to suggest that the Tennessee Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins, is pleased that Tennessee will have some minor parties on the ballot for the first time since 1972.
New Jersey state elections officials are among the kindest and most cooperative of the election officials of any state. Recently the New Jersey elections department approved the idea that petitions for presidential ballot access, for independent candidates and for the nominees of unqualified parties, may be circulated with no presidential or vice-presidential candidates listed. These petitions must instead carry the names of presidential elector candidates.
The purpose of this idea is to make it possible for groups to circulate the petition before they have chosen their national ticket. The elector candidates would tell the state whom they are pledged to, once they know the names of the presidential and vice-presidential ticket. That notification can be later than the actual petition deadline, which is always in late July.
It would be very good if states such as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Alabama, would also approve this idea. Those states won’t permit stand-in presidential candidates on petitions because they feel placing stand-in presidential candidates mislead the voters who are asked to sign. So, logically, the way to solve that problem is to simply leave the presidential and vice-presidential candidates off the petition, and simply include the presidential elector candidates and the party label on the petition.
On August 9, a U.S. District Court in West Virginia enjoined the state from enforcing a campaign finance law that limits how much individuals may donate to groups that make independent expenditures for or against candidates for state office. See this story.
