Nate Silver, author of the 538 blog carried by the New York Times, says here that it is conceivable that Jon Huntsman might be an independent presidential candidate in 2012. Even more plausible is that Huntsman might be the eventual presidential nominee of Americans Elect Party. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link.
Starting in 2008, the Constitution, Green, Libertarian and Socialist Parties have been ballot-qualified in Ohio, not because they submitted a petition, or met the vote test, but because the old ballot access law was declared unconstitutional in 2006 and the state hadn’t replaced it.
The legislature is now considering HB 194, which ostensibly cures the constitutional defects. The bill has passed both houses, but in different forms, so it must go back to the House for consideration of changes made by the Senate.
The Secretary of State’s office had previously said the four minor parties would be on the ballot automatically during 2011 (there are some local partisan elections in Ohio in 2011). But the office has not said how those parties will be treated for the 2012 election, if HB 194 is signed into law.
In any event, assuming the minor party provisions of HB 194 are not changed by either house of the legislature, the minor parties are expected to file a new lawsuit, because the new petition deadline is in early February, and all reported decisions on the subject of petition deadlines for minor parties agree that a petition deadline that early is unconstitutional. The bill moves the petition deadline from November of the year before the election to February of the election year. The bill does not reduce the number of signatures (1% of the last vote cast) nor does it improve the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot (5% for the office at the top of the ballot, President or Governor).
On June 8, a lawsuit was filed in Arizona state court, seeking a court order to remove Mayor Marlin Kuykendall from the ballot in Prescott’s mayoral election of August 30, 2011. The election is non-partisan. Kuykendall was first elected Mayor in 2009 and he is running for a second term.
The lawsuit argues that he should be off the ballot because he didn’t personally sign his campaign’s Statement of Organization. See this story, which has links to some of the briefs. The case is Wilson v Burke, Yavapai County Superior Court, P1300-cv-2011-00972.
Arizona permits write-ins in all elections. Unfortunately, in 2005, the legislature passed a law saying any candidate whose ballot access petition fails for any reason cannot be a declared write-in candidate. That law was the idea of Jan Brewer, who was Secretary of State at the time. It was directed at Ralph Nader, whose ballot access petition had failed in 2004. Nader did successfully file as a write-in in 2004, and his write-ins were tallied, but then the law was changed to stop write-ins in future elections for candidates who had tried to petition.
It seems likely, but not certain, that the South Carolina state government will not pay to administer any presidential primaries next year. The Republican Party is the only party that was planning a presidential primary in 2012 in any event. This statement from the Republican Party’s state chair is couched in oblique terms, but it seems to say that the party hopes the state government will pay for its presidential primary. The letter also seems to indicate that even if the state doesn’t pay for it, the party will. The party charges a $35,000 filing fee to list a candidate on its presidential primary. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Ralph Nader has written this five-page letter to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, setting forth the story of incompetence and dishonesty by most members of that Court, over the past seven years, in relation to Pennsylvania’s petition-checking procedures and the Court’s handling of the issue.
