Rhode Island requires 1,000 signatures for a presidential candidate to get on a presidential primary ballot. No one can circulate who didn’t file a declaration of candidacy by Saturday, January 21. The only Democrat who filed is President Obama. Seven Republicans filed the declaration of candidacy: Mark Callahan, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

Presumably, most, but not all, of those Republicans are now circulating the petition, which is due February 2. Of course it is virtually certain that Rick Perry is not circulating a petition. The Rhode Island Republican Party is helping circulate petitions for the candidates it recognizes. Any registered voter may sign, even though Rhode Island has registration by party. The primary is April 24.

Among the 29 states that have registration by party, all such states have now released a registration tally as of late 2011, or January 2012, except for California and Massachusetts. When California and Massachusetts report their data, it will then be possible to know precisely how many registered voters there are in each party in the nation, and also how many registered independents there are.

By law, California’s registration tally is due today, but several counties have not yet reported, and the Secretary of State’s office says the data won’t be available until Friday, January 27, at the earliest.

Los Angeles County says that Americans Elect has 2,857 registered voters. Orange County, the second most populous county, has 226 Americans Elect registrants. Santa Clara, the most populous county in northern California, says it has zero Americans Elect registrants.

The North Carolina Libertarian Party has requested that the state provide it with a presidential primary, which would be held on May 8. The party has requested that the State Board of Elections list six candidates on the party’s presidential primary ballot: Roger Gary, R. J. Harris, Gary Johnson, Lee Wrights, Carl Person, and Bill Still.

No party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has ever had a presidential primary in North Carolina. North Carolina started holding presidential primaries in 1972. Between 1975 and 2007, no one could get on a North Carolina presidential primary ballot unless he or she had either qualified for primary season matching funds, or submitted 10,000 signatures of party members. The only party (other than the Democratic and Republican Parties) entitled to a primary in North Carolina in presidential election years after 1975 was the Libertarian Party, which was able to nominate by primary in these presidential election years: 1980, 1984, 2000, and 2004. But no Libertarian presidential candidate has ever qualified for primary season matching funds, and the party has never had enough registered members to make it feasible for a presidential candidate to get 10,000 signatures of party members. But, in 2007, the law was changed, so that any candidate who is discussed in the news media is now automatically put on the ballot.

In most states with “media” methods for presidential candidates to get on the primary ballot, state elections officials ask the minor party leaders to just tell them which presidential candidates to list on the party’s primary ballot. “Media” coverage of candidates seeking the nomination of minor parties is not very good, and most states acknowledge that and don’t enforce the law literally for minor parties.