The Virginia Board of Elections has said that the petition to place Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode on the ballot has enough valid signatures. The petition has more than twice as many signatures as are required.

However, the Virginia Republican Party has looked at the petition and asserts that it should be rejected. One basis for the Republican Party’s statement is that Virgil Goode himself got 3 signatures on one particular day on his own Virginia petition, yet the party claims it has proof he was physically in Alabama that same day. Goode was in Alabama part of that day, but he got home to Virginia and collected a few signatures that evening.

Another basis for the Republican Party’s claim is that one circulator collected approximately 250 signatures in one day. The Republican Party claims this is impossible. Actually, there are professional petition circulators who have collected as many as 600 or 700 signatures in one day. Some petitioners are very good, and when they are in a high-traffic location, they can collect more than 500 in a single day.

On September 1 (Saturday), the Ohio voters who challenged Gary Johnson’s placement on the general election ballot withdrew their challenge. They did not explain why they withdrew. Thanks to Gary Sinawski for this news.

In a slightly related development, on August 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th circuit, dismissed the Ohio legislature’s appeal of the 2011 U.S. District Court decision that put the Libertarian Party on the ballot for 2012. The 6th circuit said the case is moot.

Ohio has now been without a constitutional ballot access law for newly-qualifying parties for six full years. It will be interesting to see if the 2013 session of the legislature passes a valid law. According to 52 court precedents from around the country, petition deadlines as early as March are unconstitutional. Yet in all six years, there has been no bill introduced in the Ohio legislature to set a petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties that would be upheld. The only reasonable solution is to eliminate the requirement that newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary. Very few other states requires that newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary, as a condition of having their nominees on the general election ballot with the party label. Ohio has a strong preference for an early primary, especially in presidential election years. If Ohio were willing to hold its congressional/state office primary in the late summer, the problem would be easier to solve, but given the state preference for an early primary, the state needs to exempt newly-qualifying parties from having a primary.

Alaska held its primary on August 28. Alaska has a blanket primary for all parties except the Republican Party, and then there is a separate Republican primary ballot. Independents may choose either ballot.

In the blanket primary, for U.S. House, that ballot contained five Democrats and one Libertarian, Jim McDermott. McDermott polled 14.8%, placing third. Of course, because it is a blanket primary, the top vote-getter from each party advances to the general election. McDermott didn’t need to poll any particular number of votes to “win” the primary, since he was the only Libertarian running.

Unless someone filed as an independent candidate, the November race for U.S. House in Alaska will be between Republican incumbent Don Young (age 79), Democrat Sharon Cissna (age 70), and McDermott (age 55).