On May 7, the ACLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the California procedure by which newly-qualifying parties get on the ballot. The plaintiffs include the Constitution Party of California and the California Justice Committee, which is attempting to raise money to qualify the Justice Party (Rocky Anderson’s party). Here is the complaint.

California requires newly-qualifying parties to have at least 103,004 registered members by January 3, 2012, if they are to list their presidential nominees with the party label on the November ballot. Or, alternatively, the state requires 1,030,040 valid signatures to be filed in the fall of the year before the election. These laws have existed virtually unchanged since 1953, and in the almost 60 years since they were created, only seven groups have successfully qualified.

The New York Times has this story about the U.S. Senate race in Maine, a race in which independent Angus King is expected to win. No independent or minor party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine has ever before polled even as much as 10% of the vote, all the way back to the beginning of direct elections for U.S. Senate. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On May 6, the Green Party of Arkansas held its nominating convention. It nominated candidates for all four U.S. House districts, 2 state legislative districts, and 8 local partisan offices. Also the convention chose a slate of delegates to the national Green Party convention that are all pledged to Jill Stein for President.

One of the party’s legislative nominees is a former basketball player for the Harlem Globetrotters. See this story.