Peta Lindsay and the Peace & Freedom Party recently filed this brief in Peace & Freedom Party v Bowen, the case pending in U.S. District Court over whether the Secretary of State had the authority to barr Lindsay from the party’s presidential primary ballot. Because the primary is over and Lindsay is not running in California in the November election, the case will proceed after the election is over. A hearing is set for late September.
On August 12, Liberty Union, a ballot-qualified party that exists only in Vermont, nominated Stewart Alexander for President. He is also the Socialist Party presidential nominee as well.
However, it turns out that the 2009 law that changed independent candidate petition deadlines from September to June also changed the deadlines for qualified minor parties to submit their nominees for the November ballot. Therefore, the Secretary of State will refuse to print the Liberty Union nominees on the November ballot, unless the party wins a lawsuit.
As is well known, the Democratic and Republican Parties are not required to notify any state of their nominees until 60 days before the general election, so the 2009 Vermont law clearly violates the U.S. Supreme Court precedent Anderson v Celebrezze, which outlaws discrimination in timing in presidential elections.
An earlier post today mentions that the Arkansas Secretary of State has determined that Rocky Anderson did not have enough valid signatures to be on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate. The same office has also determined that American Third Position also did not have enough valid signatures, nor did the independent presidential petition for Virgil Goode. This means that the only presidential petition that succeeded this year was the petition of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The Green Party and the Libertarian Party were already qualified parties, so they did not need to petition for President. Arkansas requires 1,000 signatures for independent presidential candidates, and also requires 1,000 signatures for unqualified parties to place a presidential nominee on the ballot.
On August 14, a U.S. District Court in Texas refused to stay its own order in Voting for America, Inc., v Andrade, southern district, G-12-44. This is the case involving several Texas restrictions on voter registration drives. Among the other restrictions enjoined on August 2, one prevented out-of-state residents from helping to register voters. Texas plans to appeal the order and had hoped that the order would be suspended while the appeals process takes place.
According to this story, the Connecticut Secretary of State says it will take two to three weeks to check the only statewide presidential petition submitted this year, the petition for the Libertarian ticket. The petition has 12,686 signatures. The law requires 7,500 valid.
