Georgia Petition Deadline Passes with No Statewide Petitions and No U.S. House Petitions

Posted on by August 6, 2012
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The Georgia petition deadline for minor party and independent petitions has now passed. No group or individual turned in a petition for any statewide office, and none was turned in for U.S. House either. No statewide minor party or independent petition for statewide office has succeeded in Georgia since 2000. No U.S. House petition, in a regularly-scheduled election, has succeeded in Georgia since 1964. Back in 1964, petitions were not checked, did not need to be notarized, and were not due until October of the election year.

The Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified for statewide office in Georgia, but not for district or county office. The Green Party and Constitution Party have a lawsuit pending against the presidential petition procedure.

Web Page for Arizona Top-Two Adherents Implies that Nebraska has a Top-Two Open Primary System

Posted on by August 6, 2012
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Here is the web page for the Arizona group that is attempting to qualify an initiative on the November 2012, to pass a top-two open primary law. The map misleads viewers into thinking that Nebraska has a top-two open primary. Actually, Nebraska has semi-closed primaries for President, Congress, all state executive offices, and all partisan county offices.

The adherents of the Arizona initiative, if asked about this, would probably say, “Yes, but Nebraska has non-partisan legislative elections”, and that would be true. However, non-partisan elections are not the same as top-two open primary systems. Although vocabulary in this area of election law is frequently confusing, all writers about primary systems define “top-two Primary” to be a system in which party labels appear on ballots, yet parties don’t nominate candidates.

Party labels on the ballot are the single most important determinant of how voters vote. Political science research has confirmed this for over half a century. A system without party labels, such as the Nebraska legislative election system, is therefore very different from any system in which party labels appear on the ballot. Nebraska has had non-partisan elections for the legislature since 1934. Nevertheless, political science research has shown that even the Nebraska legislature, in recent years, has behaved in a very partisan manner. Thanks to Mark Rogalski and Christina Tobin for the link.

Independent Presidential Candidate Randall Terry Submits West Virginia Petition

Posted on by August 6, 2012
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Although, as already reported, only one unqualified party, the Libertarian Party, submitted a petition to be on the November ballot statewide in West Virginia, there was also an independent presidential petition submitted. The independent presidential candidate is Randall Terry, famous for fighting against legal abortion for many decades. He submitted 11,433 to meet a requirement of 7,135.

The signatures for both petitions are being checked by the counties. The counties are supposed to finish by August 13. The Green Party is ballot-qualified in West Virginia so did not need to file a petition. The Libertarian petition includes a candidate for Governor, as well as for President and Vice-President. Assuming the Libertarian petition has enough valid signatures, it is fairly likely that the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate will poll at least 1% of the vote, and give the party qualified status for four years. There will be four gubernatorial candidates on the November ballot at most. This is the first time the Libertarian Party has been on the ballot for Governor in West Virginia since 2000, when it polled .86% in a five-candidate race.

Vermont Superior Court Gives Justice Party Two More Weeks to Obtain Signatures

Posted on by August 6, 2012
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Vermont is tied for having the earliest petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. Also, Vermont has very cumbersome petition-checking procedures for independent presidential candidates. They must take the petitions to each town, wait for the town clerks to check the signatures, and then collect the signatures and physically take them to the Secretary of State. Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party failed to qualify, and sued. On August 6, a Superior Court Judge in Washington County ruled that the Justice Party has two more weeks to complete the process. Here is the opinion, which says the procedures the Secretary of State has been using violate the U.S. Constitution. The judge also said that the state must accepted petitions that were collected on photocopies of blank petition forms. The state had been insisting that only forms issued by the state (and not copies made by the group) were valid.

The case is Anderson v State of Vermont, 480-6-12. It seems somewhat likely that the Constitution Party and the Green Party may also benefit from this ruling.

New Book on How Democratic Party Switched Vice-Presidential Nominees in 1972

Posted on by August 5, 2012
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Joshua M. Glasser has just published “The Eighteen-Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign Crisis.” The book is published by Yale U. Press. In July 1972, the Democratic national convention chose Thomas Eagleton for vice-president, and George McGovern for president, and certified the names of the nominees to all 50 states and D.C. The following month, Eagleton resigned from the ticket and the Democratic National Committee met and chose Sargent Shriver as the replacement.

The publication of a book on this topic is a welcome development. New and minor parties, and independent presidential candidates, frequently don’t know who their vice-presidential candidate will be until late in the campaign. This was notably true for John B. Anderson, who declared as an independent in April 24, 1980, yet who didn’t choose his v-p until August 27. Unfortunately, the First Circuit, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court, both ruled recently that there is no constitutional right for a newly-qualifying party, or an independent ticket, to make a late decision on the vice-presidential selection. The failure of some states, and some courts, to give flexibility for vice-presidential substitution is an obvious violation of Equal Protection, and having this book in print will make that point easier to explain. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the news about the book.