On May 31, Buddy Roemer said he is no longer a candidate for President. Even though Americans Elect had said on May 17 that it would not nominate anyone for President, Roemer had still been a candidate for the Reform Party nomination. The Reform Party is ballot-qualified in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Courtesy of Politico, here is Roemer’s withdrawal statement. He did not mention the Reform Party in his statement.

It is ironic that Roemer dropped out on May 31 and cited lack of ballot access. In 1924, Robert La Follette did not even declare as an independent presidential candidate until July 4, 1924, and he still got on the ballot in 47 of the 48 states. The lone state in which he did not qualify was Louisiana, where he would have needed 1,000 signatures by September of voters who were not registered as members of the Democratic or Republican Parties. That hurdle was too difficult for La Follette, because another Louisiana law made it too late for voters to switch parties, and there just weren’t enough registered independents in Louisiana to sign the petition. President Coolidge, known to be reluctant to speak out on almost any issues, did condemn the Louisiana ballot access law that year for excluding La Follette. But the fact in 1924 someone could still wait until July 4 to decide to run, and get on the ballot in all but one state, shows how much less free the United States is, compared to 1924.

On May 30, filing for the Arizona primaries closed, for candidates who wish to have their names placed on primary ballots. Stephen Dolgos of New River, Arizona, filed 171 signatures to run in the Americans Elect primary for Congress in the new 8th district. As far as is known, he is the first person who has filed to run in any Americans Elect primary in any state. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page, showing all candidates running in primaries. Here is a link to the Dolgos campaign web page.

There will also be some individuals who file to be write-in candidates in Arizona primaries. The deadline for that is in the future. Thanks to Richard Grayson for this news.

Dolgos was permitted to obtain signatures from registered voters who are not members of a political party, as well as from voters who are registered as Americans Elect Party members.

Arizona requires ballot-qualified parties that intend to place a presidential nominee on the November ballot to submit their presidential elector candidates by May 30. No other state requires such early submission of presidential elector candidates.

On May 30, the Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican Parties submitted their candidates for presidential elector. Americans Elect did not submit any candidates for presidential elector. This was no surprise, given the May 17 announcement that Americans Elect won’t nominate anyone for President this year. If Americans Elect had had the slightest inkling that it might change its mind about that, it would have submitted candidates for presidential elector. They could always have withdrawn later.