Every week, the Americans Elect web page shows how many signatures have been collected nationwide on its ballot access petitions. The new total is 2,253,037, an increase during the last week of 56,790 signatures. That is high, relative to the previous week’s collection of 43,357 signatures.

One goal of Americans Elect is to be finished in thirty states by the end of this calendar year, which would give it qualified status in more states than any other party besides the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Libertarian Party currently has 29 states, but it might be finished in South Dakota and New Hampshire by the end of the year.

The California Secretary of State is expected to announce on Monday, December 19, that Americans Elect has enough valid signatures on its California petition for party status. Only seven counties haven’t finished checking the signatures, and they have a total of 177,375 raw signatures to process. But in the remaining counties, Americans Elect already has 981,858 valid signatures, and just needs another 48,222 to be across the finish line. The Americans Elect petition drive in California will apparently be the only time any petition in any state with a requirement greater than 1,000,000 signatures ever succeeded. The runner-up is the California recall election of 2003, which requires signatures equal to 12% of the last gubernatorial vote. But, the turnout was so low in 2002, 12% of the 2003 gubernatorial vote was 897,158 signatures, less by far than 10% of the 2010 gubernatorial turnout. The California initiative for constitutional amendments is 8% of the last gubernatorial vote.

On December 16, the Justice Party filed its letter with the California Secretary of State for “political body” status. A “political body” is a group that says it will try to qualify as a party. The Justice Party will try to persuade 103,008 Californians to fill out a voter registration card, listing that person as a registered member of the Justice Party.

The statutory deadline for this method for getting on the ballot is January 2, 2012. It is overwhelmingly likely that the California deadline is unconstitutional. There are no reported lawsuit decisions that uphold a mandatory deadline for a group to qualify to appear on the November ballot, with a party label, earlier than May of the election year. And the deadline is especially vulnerable in connection with a presidential election.

On December 16, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) introduced a bill to provide that in federal elections, ex-felons can vote, no matter what state they live in. The bill does not have a number yet.

On January 5, 2011, U.S. House member John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced the same idea, in HR 108. It has not made any headway this year.

Article One of the U.S. Constitution says that Congress may pass election laws for federal office. Most states permit ex-felons to register to vote, but sometimes they provide for difficult procedures for ex-felons to regain the right to register. And some states simply never permit ex-felons to register. The United States is the only nation that has such provisions. In most nations that have free elections, incarcerated felons may vote.