All Three Libertarian Statewide Candidates Poll Enough Votes in North Dakota Primary to Advance to November Election

North Dakota held its primary on June 12, for the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. North Dakota has an open primary, which means any voter can choose any party’s primary ballot. The primary ballots are all printed on a single sheet of paper, and the voter decides in the privacy of the voting booth which primary he or she will participate in. North Dakota law requires candidates for statewide office to poll at least 300 votes in the primary, in order to advance to the November ballot. All three Libertarian candidates for statewide office met the requirement.

The Constitution Party did not have any candidates, but the state still printed primary ballots for it. In theory, a write-in candidate could have been nominated, but no write-in candidate polled enough votes to be nominated.

The Libertarian Party was disadvantaged in this primary because the state printed the Libertarian Party primary ballot on the back of the ballot, whereas the other three parties were printed on the front. But that problem was overcome. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page, giving election returns. Not all votes have been counted yet.

South Carolina Feature Story Describes One Candidate’s Attempt to Obtain Enough Signatures to Qualify as an Independent

The South Carolina press has carried many stories about this year’s primaries, in which 250 major party candidates for legislature and county office were eliminated from the primary ballots due to a technicality. Some of these candidates are now running as independent candidates, and are working on their petition drives. The deadline is July 16. See this story about one particular candidate’s petitioning activity. The requirement is 5% of the number of registered voters, which is quite difficult.

South Carolina has only had one independent in the legislature in the entire period starting in 1896. He is Jim Cromer, who was elected as an independent in 1990 and re-elected as an independent three more times. Chances are, in the November 2012 election, several individuals will be elected as independent candidates, even though they will then consider themselves members of one of the two major parties.

Salon Covers Odd U.S. House Race in Michigan

Salon has this interesting article about Michigan’s U.S. House race, 11th district. That district went from being a safe seat for the Republican incumbent, Thad McCotter, into a district that is wildly unpredictable. McCotter failed to get 1,000 valid signatures on his petition to be on the Republican primary ballot, and then decided not to be a write-in candidate in the primary.

Texas Newspapers Cover Libertarian Party, Green Party Nominating Conventions

The Texas ballot-qualified minor parties held their nominating conventions on the weekend of June 9-10. Here is a story about the Libertarian Party convention and the Green Party convention. Both parties are ballot-qualified, based on their votes in 2010.

Americans Elect has suspended its petition in Texas, and the Constitution Party and other unqualified parties don’t seem to be trying to get on in Texas this year, so the November Texas ballot is expected to have only four presidential candidates on the ballot. The petition deadline for all unqualified parties and independent candidates is June 29.