On April 22, the Peace & Freedom Party filed its opening brief in the Ninth Circuit in Peace & Freedom Party v Bowen, 13-15085. The issue is whether the California Secretary of State exceeded her authority when she deleted Peta Lindsay’s name from the list of 2012 presidential primary candidates submitted to her by the Peace & Freedom Party. The Secretary of State did so because Lindsay didn’t meet the constitutional qualifications to be President.

The brief cites the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that Congress shall determine whether presidential candidates are qualified at the time Congress counts the electoral votes. The brief also mentions that when John McCain’s qualifications were challenged (on the basis that he was born in Panama), the Secretary of State took the position that she cannot judge presidential qualifications. Finally, the brief points out that there is no California law authorizing the Secretary of State to review the constitutional qualifications of candidates whose party wants their names printed on its presidential primary ballot.

If anyone can assist with my research project, please comment below, or else send me an e-mail at richardwinger@yahoo.com. The research project is to determine which state constitutions mention political parties. It has already been determined that the state constitutions of at least 34 states do mention them.

If anyone can find any mention of “political party” or “partisan” or “non-partisan” in the text of these 16 state Constitutions, please let me know: Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. I have already read the state constitutions of these 16 states, and I can’t find any of the terms. But it is easy to miss a short phrase in a lengthy document, and possibly one of you will find something I missed. Thank you very much.

In a few states, various parties are working on getting on the 2014 ballot. The Libertarian Party has begun its Hawaii petition, and has approximately 150 signatures. The requirement is 706 signatures. The Constitution Party is working to obtain 1,000 registered members in Louisiana, and believes it now has 130. The Green Parties of Arizona and Nevada are also working on registration drives. The Nevada requirement is either 9,738 signatures or 9,738 registrations. The state won’t tally how many Greens there are until and unless they get enough. The Arizona requirement cannot be known exactly but it will probably be approximately 22,000 registrants and Greens have approximately 5,200 registrants.

Arkansas requires 10,000 signatures, but they must all be collected in any 90-day period of the party’s choice. Both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party are raising money and getting organized so that they can do their drives during the last three months of 2013.