Here is the brief of the Michigan Libertarian Party, asking the Sixth Circuit to put Gary Johnson on the ballot. It is an interesting brief and readers of this blog will probably enjoy reading it. The case is Michigan Libertarian Party v Ruth Johnson, 12-2153. The issues are: (1) whether Michigan’s “sore loser” law has already been interpreted not to apply to presidential primaries; (2) if it does apply to presidential primaries, it is constitutional?
This year is the first presidential election since 1964 in which no independent presidential candidate petitions succeeded in Mississippi. The state only requires 1,000 valid signatures, due in September. The only such petition submitted this year was for Jill Reed for President and Tom Cary for vice-president, but the petition lacked enough valid signatures. Reed lives in Casper, Wyoming and campaigns as the nominee of the Twelve Visions Party. She is on in Colorado but not in any other state.
Mississippi allows groups to become qualified political parties, simply by demonstrating that they have party officers in the state. Therefore, most of the nation’s nationally-organized political parties enjoy party status in Mississippi, and don’t need to use the independent petition procedure. Mississippi’s law on how parties get on the ballot was passed in 1890 and has never been amended. The law shows that, at least for small-population states, there is no need for restrictive ballot access laws for political party ballot access.
The Arizona Secretary of State has released the official canvass votes for the August 2012 primary. It shows that Americans Elect has two congressional nominees, Richard Grayson in the 4th district and Stephen Dolgos in the 8th district. See this link.
On September 10, a CNN/ORC poll for the presidential race was released. See the results here. Scroll down to question 4, to find results for all candidates for registered voters, and for likely voters.
The registered voters show: Obama 50%, Romney 41%, Gary Johnson 4%, Jill Stein 2%, undecided/other 1%. This only adds up to 98%, so chances are the percentages for several candidates were on the verge of being rounded up.
The likely voters show: Obama 51%, Romney 43%, Johnson 3%, Stein 1%, undecided/other 2%.
On September 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, refused to grant a rehearing in Initiative & Referendum Institute v U.S. Postal Service. This is the case over whether individuals may sign petitions on interior postal sidewalks. Postal regulations allow circulators to stand on such sidewalks, but if the potential signer wishes to sign, the circulator and potential signer must then leave the sidewalk and go somewhere else. It is possible the case will be put before the U.S. Supreme Court.
