On the evening of September 5, the New York Working Families Party nominated Barack Obama for President. The party had done the same in 2008. The New York Working Families Party is the only state unit of the Working Families Party that has ever placed a presidential nominee on the ballot.
The Louisiana Secretary of State’s web page shows that the Prohibition Party has placed its presidential nominee, Jack Fellure, on the ballot. The party label will be printed on the ballot. Louisiana is apparently the only state in which he will be listed.
The web page also shows that the Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, and Party for Socialism and Liberation have also placed their presidential nominees on the ballot. The deadline is Friday, September 7.
On September 5, U.S. District Court Judge Peter C. Economus ordered that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted personally appear in court in Columbus on September 13. This involves the pending lawsuit Obama for America v Husted, 2:12cv-636. The Secretary of State had declined to follow an earlier order by Judge Economus that the state permit early voting during the weekend before the election. The basis for the decision is equal protection, because the state lets members of the military vote on that weekend, although each county is free to allow or disallow such early voting by members of the military.
See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.
The November 2012 ballot in Arkansas will list only one candidate on the ballot for State Representative, district 54. He is Fred Smith, the Green Party nominee. His only ballot-listed opponent, incumbent Democrat Hudson Hallum, has resigned from the race and from the legislature. See this story. Arkansas permits write-in votes in the general election, so it is not a certainty that Smith will win.
Assuming Smith does win, this will be the second time the Green Party has elected a state legislator in Arkansas by virtue of being in a race in which no other party had a nominee on the general election ballot. The first time was in 2008, when Richard Carroll was elected. He remained in the Green Party for a year, and got a bill through the legislature expanding the petitioning period for newly-qualifying parties from two months to three months. But then he switched to the Democratic Party, and he lost the Democratic primary in 2010.
On September 5, a referee for the Oklahoma Supreme Court heard arguments in the lawsuit filed by the Americans Elect Party of Oklahoma against the State Board of Elections. The issue is whether the state should accept the nomination of Gary Johnson, made by the state party on July 21; or whether the state should follow the wishes of the national Americans Elect Party leaders, who don’t want any party nominations in any state.
The hearing lasted one hour and ten minutes, and the small hearing room was filled to capacity, so that some observers had to stand. The state will be given a chance to file a reply brief no later than September 11. Here is a short news story about the hearing.
