Marshall Hobbs, a candidate for Fort Worth, Texas city council in May 2012, is being kept off the ballot because he made a miniscule mistake on his candidacy declaration. He has lived in the district since July 1, 2011, and the law only requires that candidates have lived in the district for six months. When he filled out his declaration of candidacy form, which asked how long he had lived in the district, he put “zero years” and “six months”, thinking there was no need to give the actual (longer) residency, because six months is the requirement.

Unfortunately, the requirement is six months before the opening day for filing, not six months before the actual date of filing. So even though he really does meet the duration of residency requirement, because he minimized that period of time on the form, the City Clerk is keeping him off the ballot. However, he has filed a lawsuit, which will be heard in time for possible relief. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

Only eleven candidates seeking the presidential nomination of Americans Elect have as many as forty supporters within the Americans Elect process. They are:

1. Buddy Roemer, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has 2,221 votes. Here is his web page.
2. Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City, Utah, has 954. Here is his web page.
3. Laurence Kotlikoff, Brookline, Massachusetts, has 638. Here is his web page. He is a professor of economics and was an economic advisor to President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors.
4. Michealene Risley, Woodside, California, has 588. She makes documentary films and is a published author. One of her films, “Flashcards” was nominated for an Oscar and concerns child abuse. Her other film is “Tapestries of Hope” about Zimbabwe. She doesn’t seem to have a campaign web page.
5. T. J. O’Hara, Rancho Santa Fe, California, has 189. Here is his web page. He is a businessman.
6. Mike Ballantine, registered to vote as a Green Party member in Pennsylvania, but has lived in Vietnam for the last six years. He has 117 votes. Here is his web page.
7. R. J. Harris, Norman, Oklahoma, has 80. Here is his web page. He is also seeking the Libertarian Party nomination.
8. Marlin Miller, Tennessee, has 70. Here is his web page. He is also the presidential nominee of American Third Position Party.
9. Dwight Smith, Detroit area, Michigan, has 58. He doesn’t seem to have a campaign web page.
10. David Jon Sponheim, Oak Harbor, Washington, has 47. Here is his web page. He is also the presidential nominee of America’s Third Party.
11. Verl Farnsworth, Mesa, Arizona, has 46. Here is his web page.

The Birmingham news has this op-ed by Loretta Nall, criticizing Alabama’s ballot access laws. Ironically, those laws are worse than the op-ed says. The author of the op-ed says that almost 40,000 signatures are required by June. Actually the state requires 44,829 signatures by March 13. The only statewide group that appears to have met that burden is Americans Elect.

The lawsuit against the March 13 petition deadline has a hearing on Monday, March 26. The op-ed does not mention the lawsuit, which is called Stein v Chapman.