Americans Elect’s IRS Form 990 Expected to Soon be Available to the Public

Posted on by November 19, 2012
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Americans Elect is a 501(c)(4) corporation. Federal tax laws say that a 501(c)(4) organization is a “civic league, social welfare organization, or a local association of employees.” A 501(c)(4) may participate in political campaigns and elections, as long as its primary activity is the promotion of social welfare. A 501(c)(4) need not make public a list of individuals who donate to it.

These organizations are required to fill out a 12-page form, called Form 990, and this form must be available for public inspection. The form asks for a description of the organization’s mission or most significant activities, and an accounting of income and expenditures.

Jim Cook, of the blog Irregular Times, is a journalist who has been covering Americans Elect since it was founded. Here he describes his efforts to see the latest Form 990 for Americans Elect, the form for calendar year 2011.

Ballot Retention for the Pre-existing One-State Political Parties that Nominated Rocky Anderson for President

Posted on by November 19, 2012
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Early this year, Rocky Anderson founded the Justice Party and was nominated as its presidential candidate. His attempts to get on various state ballots were helped when four one-state parties which were already ballot-qualified nominated him as their presidential candidate. These four parties were the Connecticut Independent Party, the Michigan Natural Law Party, the New Mexico Independent Party, and the Oregon Progressive Party. All four parties had nominated Ralph Nader for President in 2008.

Of those four parties, two have now lost their qualified status, because Anderson didn’t poll enough votes. The New Mexico Independent Party went off the ballot because Anderson polled less than one-half of 1%. And the Connecticut Independent Party lost its presidential ballot access because Anderson polled less than 1%.

However, the Oregon Progressive Party remains ballot qualified because of its vote for the other statewide offices. The Natural Law Party remains ballot-qualified in Michigan because of its vote for Regent of the University of Michigan.

One-state qualified parties that nominated Nader in 2008, but which ran no presidential nominee in 2012, are the Delaware Independent Party and the Florida Ecology Party. The Peace & Freedom Party of California in 2008 nominated Nader, and in 2012 nominated Roseanne Barr. The three parties mentioned in this paragraph continue to be ballot-qualified (also, Peace & Freedom is no longer just a one-state party).

Ron Nielson, Gary Johnson Campaign Manager, Says Johnson is Interested in the Libertarian Presidential Nomination in 2016

Posted on by November 18, 2012
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The Libertarian National Committee is meeting in Arlington, Virginia, November 17-18. IndependentPoliticalReport has been covering that meeting. See here, and then scroll down to comments #88 and #96, in which participants at the meeting commented that Ron Nielson, Gary Johnson’s campaign manager, says Johnson is interested in the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2016.

More Minor Party and Independent Legislators Elected in 2012 than in Any Year Since 1942

Posted on by November 18, 2012
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A November 10 blog post at this site said that 25 minor party and independent candidates had been elected to state legislatures this month. Checking records of past elections reveals that this is the highest such number since 1942, when there were 31 such candidates elected. In 1944, there were 22 such candidates elected, and at no time since 1944 (until 2012) had there been any election with more than 17.

None of the independent and minor party candidates who were elected in 2012 were elected from states with a top-two primary system.