On August 21, the Independent Party of Connecticut, which is ballot-qualified for President, nominated Rocky Anderson for President. The party had nominated Ralph Nader in 2008, and because he polled over 1%, that party retained its qualified status for that particular office for 2012. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for this news.
On August 21, the California Assembly passed SB 1233, would requires circulators of initiative, referendum, and recall petitions to have in their possession while they are working copies of their petitions in the same languages (other than English) that are sometimes printed on ballots. In Los Angeles County, that will mean eight sets of petitions. See this story. Proponents of these types of petition would also be required to tell the Secretary of State which counties they will be working in, before starting to circulate the petition.
The bill had passed the State Senate on May 29, but it has been amended since then, and must return to the Senate.
On August 21, Pennsylvania attorneys for the Republican activists who are challenging the Constitution Party’s petition told leaders of the party that if they withdrew their statewide petition by 3 p.m., the challengers would not seek court costs. Therefore, the Constitution Party, which had already spent over $50,000 on its Pennsylvania petition, withdrew that petition. Court costs would probably exceed $100,000.
The party had submitted approximately 35,000 signatures. The state requires 20,601.
This year, only two statewide independent or minor party petitions were submitted in West Virginia for statewide office. The Libertarian petition, listing Gary Johnson for President and David Moran for Governor, has enough valid signatures. The state is still checking the other petition, for Randall Terry as an independent presidential candidate.
The ballot-qualified parties in West Virginia are Democratic, Republican, and Green (the name of the Green Party in West Virginia is the Mountain Party).
Tennessee has verified the validity of the independent presidential petitions for Gary Johnson and Merlin Miller, but says the Rocky Anderson petition only has 255 valid signatures, and 275 are needed. Anderson volunteers will work with election officials to find signatures that may have been improperly rejected.
The Green Party and Constitution Parties didn’t need independent presidential petitions because they are ballot-qualified parties.
