Ezra Klein is a columnist for the Washington Post, for Bloomberg News, and a contributor to MSNBC. This Klein column discusses Americans Elect. It is especially interesting because he appears to have interviewed Eliot Ackerman, one of Americans Elect’s leaders. Ackerman lays stress on the role Americans Elect will play in elections after 2012, and mentions that Americans Elect will be automatically on the ballot in 2014 in many states if its nominee does well in 2012.

If Americans Elect really wants to be automatically ballot-qualified in 2014 in as many states as possible, and if it is paying attention to the laws on how parties remain ballot-qualified, then it will run candidates in 2012 for certain statewide offices other than President.

In Alabama, a party is automatically on the ballot if it polls 20% for any statewide office. In 2012, it is not likely that the Americans Elect presidential nominee will poll as much as 20% in Alabama. But if Americans Elect were to run for any of the four statewide partisan State Supreme Court races that otherwise will have only the Republican nominee on the ballot, chances are very high that it would poll 20% for one of those races. In a similar two-party State Supreme Court race in Alabama in 2000, the Libertarian Party polled over 20% of the vote and was therefore on the ballot automatically in 2002.

In Idaho, if a party runs nominees for at least three partisan offices, it is automatically ballot-qualified for the next election. The package of president, vice-president, and presidential electors counts as only one office, so Americans Elect should run nominees for two other partisan federal or state offices if it wishes to remain ballot-qualified.

In New Hampshire, a party only remains ballot-qualified if it polls 4% for Governor or U.S. Senator. There is no U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire in 2012, so it will be interesting to see if Americans Elect runs anyone for Governor. The presidential vote is useless for keeping a party on the ballot.

In West Virginia, which elects a Governor in 2012, only the gubernatorial vote counts, so it will be interesting to see if Americans Elect runs anyone for Governor. As in New Hampshire, the presidential vote is not relevant to a party’s on-going status.

In Wyoming, a party remains ballot-qualified in a presidential election year only if it polls 2% for U.S. House. The presidential vote is not involved.

On March 15, the New York Assembly passed A9271b, a bill that moves the non-presidential primary from August to June. It also moves the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from August 21 to May 29. Section 13 of the bill says that independent petitions are due 23 weeks before the general election, which, in 2012, works out to May 29.

That deadline would certainly be held unconstitutional, at least as applied to presidential candidates. There are currently no states with a deadline for independent presidential petitions earlier than June 14 (Colorado has a June 2 deadline, but Colorado doesn’t require a petition, just payment of $500). June petition deadlines for independent candidates have been declared unconstitutionally early in six states, so even a June petition deadline for New York would be constitutionally suspect.

Recently, the presidential nominees of two newly-created political parties decided to seek the Americans Elect presidential nomination. One such nominee is Rocky Anderson, who is also the presidential nominee of the Justice Party. See this news story about Anderson’s declaration, which he made on March 14.

The other is David Jon Sponheim, of Oak Harbor, Washington. He is the nominee of the new “America’s Third Party” (not to be confused with the party that nominated Alan Keyes in 2008, which was then called “America’s Independent Party” and is now “America’s Party”). Sponheim has sent this press release, which not only says that he is seeking the Americans Elect nomination, but gives clear instructions on how anyone may become an Americans Elect delegate, so it is of interest to anyone interested in the Americans Elect process.