Jon Huntsman, in this interview, says he hasn’t even talked to leaders of Americans Elect, and that in any event he will support whomever gets the Republican presidential nomination.
The reporter garbled the name and refers to it as “America’s Elect”. UPDATE: here is a link to a news story that contains a you tube of the Huntsman interview. The story notes that it took some coaxing for the host to get Huntsman to say he would support the Republican nominee, whoever it is.
This lengthy article about Americans Elect in the Savannah Morning News has interesting details about how Americans Elect is being financed. Also, the article reveals that Americans Elect now has 45,000 signatures on its Georgia petition, obtained with 30 petitioners. Assuming Americans Elect qualifies in Georgia, it will be the first party to have obtained statewide party status in Georgia by petition since 1996, when the Reform Party last did that type of petition.
The article says Americans Elect needs 51,849 valid signatures in Georgia. Actually, that is the number of signatures needed for a statewide candidate petition. The number of signatures Americans Elect needs is 50,334, because Americans Elect is doing the party petition. The party petition needs signatures equal to 1% of the number of registered voters in October 2010. But an independent presidential candidate petition would need 1% of the number of registered voters in October 2008, because that is the last election at which president was elected. Georgia had more registered voters in October 2008 than it did in October 2010.
The Georgia statewide party petition procedure has existed since 1986. It was used by the Libertarian Party and the New Alliance Party in 1988, and it was used by the Reform Party in 1996. Those are the only groups that have used that type of petition. Unfortunately, when a group successfully does the Georgia statewide party petition, it is only ballot-qualified for the statewide offices, not district or county offices.
In 1996, both the Constitution Party, and the Natural Law Party, attempted the party petition. Their petitions were rejected because a few of their notary publics also collected a few sheets of signatures. Georgia then invalidated all the notary public affirmations, which meant that practically all the petition sheets were invalid, even though the two parties probably had enough valid signatures.
On November 28, Egypt elects members of the People’s Assembly, the lower house of the national legislature. See this explanation of the voting system. Voters fill 498 seats. 332 are chosen by proportional representation, using the party list system. The other 166 seats are chosen in the same manner that the United States, Britain, and Canada choose members, by “first-past-the-post.” Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
Politico has this article by Rob Richie and Elise Helgesen, exploring the point that Republican national bylaws, if enforced, may lead to credentials challenges at the Republican national convention that convenes August 27, 2012. The bylaws say that states choosing delegates before April 1 must not use the “unit rule” (a rule that forces all delegates from one particular state to vote for the candidate preferred by a plurality of the delegation). Also, the bylaws deprive states that choose delegates as early as January half their delegates. And, the bylaws even require closed primaries for choosing delegates.
It is possible that the national convention will enforce some of these rules but not all of them.
U.S. House district boundaries for 2012 are still unsettled in six of the seven most populous states. Only California’s U.S. House district boundaries are established.
The legislatures of Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania still haven’t passed any congressional redistricting bills. In Texas and Illinois, the legislatures have passed bills to draw new U.S. House districts, but lawsuits are challenging the new districts, and courts have already ordered the normal petitioning period for primary ballot access in those states pushed back. And in Ohio, the U.S. House districts were redrawn by the legislature, but a referendum petition is circulating. If the petition obtains enough signatures, the legislature’s plan can’t be used until the people vote on the plan in November 2012.
