On June 1, attorneys for Steve Kelly asked U.S. District Court Judge Sam Haddon to extend the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline for 2012 only. As noted previously, late on Friday, May 25, Judge Haddon had declared the March deadline unconstitutional. Then the Secretary of State said the new deadline, for this year, will be May 29, which was the very day that the press and the public first became aware of the decision. The new brief, filed by the ACLU (attorneys for Kelly) asks the Judge to set an August 15 deadline for this year, on the grounds that it denies due process to set a new deadline which, in practical terms, couldn’t be met.

August 15 is the deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions to be submitted to Montana county elections officials. Therefore, it is obvious that August 15 is administratively feasible.

Randall Hayes has obtained the number of registered voters in each party in Louisiana, as of June 1. See his blog here, which has the complete list of all parties and how many registrants they have. The most surprising news is that Americans Elect has been running a registration drive in Louisiana. It has 803 registrants.

Louisiana law says a group becomes a qualified party if it obtains at least 1,000 registrants, and also it must pay a fee of $1,000. After it attains party status, it keeps it as long as it runs a candidate (for office other than president, vice-president, or presidential elector) every four years. It is not known if Americans Elect will finish its registration drive to attain the 1,000 registrants needed for party status.

The Republican, Libertarian, Green, and Reform Parties have all gained registrations in Louisiana since January 2012, but Democratic Party registration has declined.

The Green Party, and the Working Families Party, each now have enough registrations in Delaware to be on the November 2012 ballot. The Constitution Party still doesn’t have enough registrants. It is possible there are enough voter registration cards in which voters have joined the Constitution Party, but if so, the cards still haven’t been submitted to elections officials.

The Constitution Party, and any unqualified party, has until August 21 to get enough registrations. However, it will be difficult for a group to increase its registration in Delaware, because Delaware doesn’t permit voters to change parties during June or July or August. Groups can still find unregistered individuals and persuade them to register as a member of that group. Thanks to David McCorquodale for the news about the Green Party and the Working Families Party.