On April 27, the Texas Supreme Court asked for a response from El Paso Mayor John F. Cook, in the case known as Tom Brown Ministries v Cook, 12-0224. The issue is whether a recall petition should be invalidated, even though it had enough valid signatures, because the church that helped collect the signatures is incorporated. The State Appeals Court had invalidated the petition based on the church’s status as a corporation. The Mayor’s response is due May 29.

The issues in this case are closely related to the same issues from 2010, when the Green Party petition was invalidated by a lower Texas state court because it was believed that the money donated to the party for its petition drive originated from a corporation. The Texas Supreme Court, in the Green Party case, put the party back on the ballot. No further proceedings were held in that case because, after the election was over, the Texas Democratic Party, which had originally filed the challenge to the Green Party petition, did not pursue the case.

The Colorado primary is June 26. El Paso County election officials decided not to print up any primary ballots for the Democratic Party or the American Constitution Party, because those two parties have no primary contests within the boundaries of the county. But the Colorado Secretary of State believes each county must print up primary ballots for all three parties that are entitled to nominate by primary. See this story. The Secretary of State apparently will sue the county to get a judicial decision on this issue.

El Paso County is a populous county that contains Colorado Springs.

On April 30, the Missouri Senate Finance & Government Operations & Elections Committee passed HB 1046. It requires political parties that wish to have a presidential candidate on the November ballot to furnish copies of the birth certificates of both the presidential and vice-presidential candidate, within 7 days after the nominee is chosen. If it is signed into law, it will go into effect on August 28, 2012. The Democratic national convention is later than that date. The bill has already passed the House.

The bill also requires presidential primary candidates to furnish their birth certificates, and also requires declared write-in presidential candidates to do the same. But it does not apply to independent presidential candidates.