On August 6, California Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) again introduced his old bill to make it criminal for a group to pay registration drive workers on a per-registration card basis, “either directly or indirectly.” This is the same wording that was formerly in AB 2058. Now it is AB 145.

AB 145 was introduced in 2011 and changed certain aspects of the High Speed Rail Authority. It had passed the Assembly on June 3, 2011, but had not passed the State Senate. The former contents of AB 145 are now deleted, and the bill now deals with voter registration. The legislature meets for four more weeks.

The bill is now co-sponsored by Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton). Ironically, given that both authors are Democrats, last week a U.S. District Court enjoined a Texas law that made it illegal to pay registration drive workers if payment was associated with productivity of that worker. That Texas case was won by an attorney who often represents the Texas Democratic Party.

Even though the Natural Law Party ceased to exist as a national political party in 2004, it is still ballot-qualified in Michigan. It recently held its state convention and nominated Rocky Anderson for president. In 2008 the party had nominated Ralph Nader for president, and in 2004 it had nominated Walt Brown (Socialist Party nominee) for president.

Although a U.S. District Court Judge in Tennessee put the Constitution Party and the Green Party on the Tennessee ballot back in February, it has been puzzling that the State Elections Division had not yet posted the names of those parties’ nominees for public office. However, the Elections Division has now said that the official list of November 2012 candidates will not be posted until August 30.

The Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate, Martin Pleasant, has the potential to poll more than 5% of the vote, because the winner of the Democratic Party primary for U.S. Senate has been disavowed by the state Democratic Party, because of his political views. In a somewhat analogous situation, in 2010, in South Carolina, the Democratic Party also disavowed its U.S. Senate nominee, Alvin Greene. In the November 2010 U.S. Senate race in South Carolina, the Green Party nominee, Tom Clements, polled 9.21%. Of course, that was a race in which the Republican incumbent (Jim DeMint) was easily re-elected. The situation is similar in Tennessee this year, where Republican incumbent Bob Corker, is virtually certain to be re-elected easily.

If Martin Pleasant gets at least 5% of the vote, the Green Party will be ballot-qualified automatically in 2014 and 2016. It would be the first party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, to poll enough votes to maintain its qualified status in Tennessee since George Wallace obtained that status in 1968 for the American Party. Even the Reform Party never enjoyed qualified party status in Tennessee. Ross Perot qualified as an independent in Tennessee in 1996. Tennessee is the only state in the nation in which the Reform Party tried to get on the ballot as a party in 1996, and failed.