Americans Elect has turned in approximately 37,000 signatures in Oregon, to meet a requirement of 21,804 valid signatures. See this story.
Reply
The March 19 PBS News Hour featured a 10-minute segment about Americans Elect. Christy Whitman and David Boren both were interviewed for the segment. See it here. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
On March 15, Heidi Fuller asked the California State Court of Appeals to re-hear Fuller v Bowen. This is the case over whether the California Constitutional requirement that candidates for the legislature must have lived in their district should be enforced. Here is the rehearing request. It points out that if the duration of residency requirement cannot be enforced, except by the legislature itself, then one wonders why the state enforces the law that requires candidates for the legislature to be registered to vote.
On March 19, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy DeGiusti declined to issue an injunction, putting the Libertarian Party on the Oklahoma ballot. He noted that the party submitted 57,137 signatures by the March 1 deadline, and that the requirement is 51,739 signatures, and the signatures have not yet been checked. Therefore, it is possible the party has enough valid signatures. Oklahoma election officials are checking the signatures now, and probably won’t be finished until March 28. Here is the 35-page order.
The order, on page 20, seems to suggest that Judge DeGiusti believes that it is possible for independent presidential candidates to get on the November ballot without a petition, just by paying a fee. The order says, “Independents have placed presidential candidates on the ballot via the alternative means of paying a filing fee without gaining party recognition.” Actually, independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, need 43,890 signatures by July 15.
The order does not mention any of the 17 precedents which say that petition deadlines for a new party to get on the ballot are unconstitutional, if they are earlier than May. The order mentions several precedents that uphold petitions of 5%, but does not acknowledge that none of the federal precedents mentioned in the order relate to presidential elections. The federal precedents cited in the order are Jenness v Fortson (which concerned a gubernatorial and a U.S. House election), and Rainbow Coalition v Oklahoma Election Board (which concerned ballot access in another midterm year, 1986). The order does not mention Bergland v Harris, a 1985 Eleventh Circuit opinion that said that Jenness v Fortson doesn’t necessarily apply to presidential elections. Another important precedent the order does not mention in Blomquist v Thomsen, a 10th circuit opinion which said that when the normal petitioning period is shortened, the number of signatures should be proportionately reduced. Oklahoma is in the 10th circuit. The order does not mention that in Anderson v Celebrezze, the U.S. Supreme Court said presidential ballot access is entitled to greater protection than ballot access for other office.
The Green Papers has these election returns for Puerto Rico’s presidential primary. Six candidates were on the ballot: Mitt Romney 82.88%; Rick Santorum 8.02%; Buddy Roemer 2.21%; Newt Gingrich 2.05%; Fred Karger 1.43%; Ron Paul 1.22%; write-in 2.18%. UPDATE: here is a picture of the ballot. The order of candidates (at least on this particular ballot) is Roemer, Romney, Gingrich, Paul, Karger, and Santorum.