On September 11, Gravis Marketing/Capitol Correspondent released an Ohio poll showing Gary Johnson at 4.5%. See here for more data from the poll, which also shows President Obama leading in Ohio. It is unusual for pollsters in Ohio to ever include minor party or independent candidates in their questions. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
Ballotpedia has released this four-page analysis of State Official Voter Guides that carry information and, usually, arguments pro and con about state ballot measures. Although not every state has the statewide initiative, any state can have statewide ballot measures, because legislatures can put such measures on the ballot. Ballotpedia studied each state’s Voter Guide and finds that some are much better than others.
On September 5, U.S. District Court Judge Joan Gottschall, a Clinton appointee, issued a 17-page opinion in Libertarian Party of Illinois v Illinois State Board of Elections, northern district, 12-C-2511. The opinion denies the state’s motion to dismiss the case, and strongly suggests that the party will win the lawsuit against the Illinois “full-slate” requirement. However, the opinion suggests that the June petition deadline is constitutional.
Illinois requires an unqualified party to submit a full slate of candidates for any jurisdiction in which it is petitioning. Thus, if it is circulating a statewide petition in a mid-term year, it can’t just run for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. If it runs for those offices, it must also run for Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney General, and Comptroller. If it runs a presidential candidate in a year in which U.S. Senate is being voted on, then it must also run a U.S. Senate candidate.
The rule is even more oppressive when county partisan offices are being contested. In this particular lawsuit, the Libertarian Party wanted to run Julie Fox for Auditor of Kane County. But the party was prohibited by the full-slate law from petitioning for her, unless the party also nominated for all the other Kane County county-wide partisan offices.
The Alabama Secretary of State has certified that the three independent presidential petitions all have enough valid signatures. Therefore, Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein are on the Alabama ballot. All three will have “independent” as their only ballot label. Alabama is the only state this year in which no minor party labels will appear on the November ballot for President, except that this may or may not become true for Oklahoma as well. Thanks to Paullie for this news.
The Rhode Island Secretary of State has determined that the Libertarian presidential petition has enough valid signatures. The Secretary’s office is keeping a running tally of the number of valid signatures being reported by various towns and cities. The state requires 1,000 valid signatures.
Some cities and towns haven’t reported yet. Providence has made a partial report and will be sending in more later this week. So far, the other presidential petitions have this many valid signatures: Green 996, Party for Socialism and Liberation 897, Constitution 865, and Justice 621.
Because September 11, Tuesday, is primary day in Rhode Island, not much work will be done on the petition tally by most towns for a few days yet. Thanks to Bob Johnston for the news about the Libertarian petition, which has 1,277 valid signatures already. There is no more need for the state to tally any more signatures on that petition.
