North Carolina requires 85,379 valid signatures for a new party, or a statewide independent, to get on the ballot in 2012. That is the second highest number of any state, after California. Americans Elect earlier submitted 125,032 signatures, and the validation process shows that it has enough valid signatures. Thanks to Kevin Hays for this news.

The Texas Secretary of State recently informed Americans Elect that the period for circulating the petition to get a new party on the ballot runs from March 14 through May 28. Because it is virtually certain that the primary will be on or after May 29, the Secretary of State says any registered voter may sign the petition. If someone who signed the petition then votes in the primary, the signature is valid. The requirement is 49,799 signatures.

This is the first time ever that a party can petition in Texas and get signatures from any registered voter, regardless of whether the voter voted in a primary or not. Texas has only required petitions for party access to the ballot since 1967. Before 1967, Texas let any party on the ballot without a petition, if it held a state convention and county conventions in at least twenty counties. UPDATE: as Jim Riley says in a comment below, if a Texas voter uses the state’s early voting procedures and votes in the May 29 primary during the two weeks before that primary, that particular kind of voter could not sign the party petition after having voted. Therefore, it is probably better if parties can manage to circulate their petitions before early voting starts.

The Texas Secretary of State’s web page still says that independent presidential candidates may not start circulating their petition until April 4, and that the independent presidential petition is due on May 14. However, that is outdated information. It was written and posted when the Secretary of State thought the Texas primary would be on April 3. Here is the Secretary of State’s web page that pertains to presidential candidates, as it is on February 19. Scroll down to the independent presidential section. The Secretary of State, or a court, will be required to set new procedures for independent presidential candidates, because the law says the petition can’t start until after the primary, but it also says that the petition is due the second Tuesday of May, which is May 8. It is obviously absurd to provide that a petition can’t start until after it is due.

On January 19, 2012, the 9th circuit issued an opinion in Farris v Seabrook, 11-35620, a case over Washington State’s $800 limit on contributions to political committees making expenditures in a recall campaign. The 9th circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court that the law should be enjoined. The 9th circuit wrote that there “is only a tenuous relationship with candidates.” Recalls in Washington, as in most states, simply put on the ballot the question of whether a particular office-holder should be recalled. They do not simultaneously bring about an election campaign over who should fill the vacant seat. Just as no one can bribe an initiative, neither can anyone bribe a recall.

On the other hand, on February 17, a Texas State Court of Appeals blocked a recall from going ahead, even though the recall drive had enough valid signatures, because an incorporated church had sponsored the recall petition. Cook v Tom Brown Ministries, 08-11-367-cv. Here is the 27-page opinion, which does not discuss the constitutionality of Texas’ law forbidding corporate contributions to a recall committee, except to say that Citizens United v FEC does not invalidate the Texas restriction. The Texas decision does not mention Farris v Seabrook or any other precedents over whether contributions to a recall committee may be limited.