This year, two independent presidential candidates filed petitions in Ohio. The petition of Michael Vargo has been rejected because it didn’t list anyone for vice-president. See this story. He apparently did not know that Ohio election law permits stand-ins, so even though he hadn’t found his actual running mate when he started petitioning, he could have used a stand-in.

The other independent presidential petition, for Richard Duncan, has been approved. Duncan was also an independent presidential candidate in Ohio (but no other state) in 2008. In 2008, he received 3,905 votes. Ohio requires 5,000 valid signatures for independent candidates for statewide office.

Ohio has seven ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Socialist, and Americans Elect.

On August 29, the three Iowa officials charged with adjudicating the challenge to the Libertarian Party’s ballot placement voted 3-0 to keep the Libertarian Party presidential ticket on the ballot. The three officials were the Secretary of State, the Auditor, and the Attorney General.

Defying conventional expectation, Matt Schultz, the Republican Secretary of State, spoke out most forcefully in defense of the Gary Johnson ballot position. And the Democratic Attorney General, Tom Miller, at first was most in favor of removing Johnson from the ballot. However, in the end, Miller agreed with Schultz. The Iowa election code does not describe or even define “convention” in the section relating to unqualified party ballot access. Schultz also pointed out that Iowa permitted Brian Moore, the 2008 Socialist Party presidential nominee, to get on the ballot using an open-air convention at which passers-by were permitted to sign the roster.

Here is a brief news story. UPDATE: here is the formal decision. Thanks to Alicia Dearn for the link to the decision.

On August 24, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter dismissed the case known as Delegates to the Republican National Convention v Republican National Committee, 8:12-cv-927, central district of California. The case had been filed by 119 Ron Paul delegates to the national convention over various disputes with the Republican National Committee. The case was dismissed mostly because the judge said the plaintiffs had failed to comply with court rules.