On July 15, Jill Stein was interviewed on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”. Here is a link. The interview was held shortly after Stein had received the Green Party presidential nomination.
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Neil Reiff, former General Counsel to the Democratic National Committee, has this article in Campaigns and Elections. He makes the case that the McCain-Feingold law imposes too many obstacles to state political parties, as well as local political parties, and that many restrictions in the McCain-Feingold law that injure such parties should be repealed. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s Electionlawblog for the link.
The deadline for independent candidates to submit petitions to be on the November ballot in South Carolina passed at noon on Monday, July 16. According to this news story, almost two dozen candidates had already submitted petitions by the time the story was filed, and it was filed several hours before the deadline. Check back here for an update once the final number is known.
South Carolina has only elected one independent candidate to its legislature in the history of government-printed ballots, but it seems somewhat likely that it will elect several this year. Almost 250 candidates who wanted to run in Democratic and Republican primaries this year were eliminated from primary ballots, and many of them resolved to then become independent candidates. South Carolina does not have registration by party so whether anyone is an independent depends strictly on the individual’s state of mind.
The Washington Post has this fairly lengthy article about the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee, former Congressman Virgil Goode. The story focuses on his popularity in central Virginia.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) held its annual board meeting on July 15 in Baltimore. COFOE is a loose coalition of most of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties, plus other groups that support COFOE’s goals of better legal treatment for independent candidates and alternative political parties.
The new officers are: Tom McLaughlin chair, Gary Odom vice-chair, Phil Huckelberry Secretary, Alice Kelsey Treasurer. The Board voted unanimously to attempt to persuade the national leaders of Americans Elect to let persons in each state (in which Americans Elect is ballot-qualified) who are interested in Americans Elect to have the freedom to meet in their own states and determine whether or not to choose presidential elector candidates, and determine which presidential candidate these electors would be pledged to.
In states in which Americans Elect is ballot-qualified and in which that state has registration by party, all the registrants in Americans Elect could be invited to such a meeting. In states without party registation, attendance could be open to any registered voter who is interested.
This policy would almost certainly mean that Americans Elect would have different presidential candidates in different states, but there is nothing new about a U.S. political party having different presidential candidates in different states. Parties that have had different presidential candidates in various states include the Whig Party in 1836; the Greenback Party in 1884; the Republican Party in 1912; the Prohibition Party in 1928; the Farmer-Labor Party in 1928; the Democratic Party in 1948, 1964, and 1968; the States Rights Party in 1956; the Constitution Party in 1960; the Libertarian Party in 2000; and the Reform Party in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
Giving state branches of Americans Elect the ability to help the ballot access for presidential candidates such as Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Rocky Anderson (all of whom have been elected to public office) would enhance voter choice and mean that the money spent on Americans Elect ballot qualification was not entirely wasted.
COFOE also voted unanimously for a resolution to draft a Bylaw that would say member organizations are expected not to challenge the ballot access petitions of other members of COFOE, particularly when those challenges involve presidential candidates.