On June 14, the Michigan State Court of Appeals, in effect, has put a statewide referendum back on the Michigan ballot. Earlier, the State Board of Canvassers had taken it off the ballot, on the ground that the font size on the petition was slightly different than the required font. See this story. It is still possible the Michigan Supreme Court will reverse the State Court of Appeals. The case is Stand Up for Democracy v Secretary of State, 310047.

The decision actually was released on June 8, but the 3-judge panel had stayed its own decision, while all the judges considered whether to rehear the case. But on June 14, the other judges said they didn’t wish the case reheard. The June 8 opinion says that the petition font really was too small, but that the panel is bound by a 2002 decision that says substantial compliance is good enough. The law requires 14-point font and the court concluded that the petition used 12-point font. Font sizes are sometimes ambiguous and date back to a French standard established in 1737. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

On June 12, a registered member of the Constitution Party was elected to a local non-partisan office in Baker, Nevada. He is Terrance Stedman, elected to the Baker General Improvement Board. In Nevada, the Constitution Party’s name is the Independent American Party. Baker is in eastern Nevada, and has the headquarters of Nevada’s only National Park, the Great Basin Park. Thanks to Cody Quirk for this news.

Since 1976, California voter registration forms have listed all the qualified parties, and provided a check box for each one. New registration cards have now been issued to reflect that Americans Elect is now a qualified party.

Question 14 of the form asks, “Do you want to choose a political party preference?” Underneath that question, on the left, there is a check box labeled “No Party Preference.” After the that, it says, “No, I do not want to choose a political party preference.”

Under question 14, but on the right, the form says, “Yes, my political party preference is: (check one). This is followed by a list of parties, in alphabetical order, each with its own checkbox. The order is American Independent Party, Americans Elect Party, Democratic Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, Peace and Freedom Party, Republican Party, Other (specify).”

Americans Elect, which spent several million dollars collecting 1,030,040 valid signatures to earn its party status, will go off the ballot in January 2014 unless it gets its registration up to one-fifteenth of 1%. That will probably be approximately 12,000 registered members. Currently it only has 3,030. It will be interesting to see if Americans Elect exerts itself to raise its registration in California and save its ballot access.