Independent Candidate Hopes to be Elected Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona

Mike Stauffer, independent candidate for Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, has already gathered 30,000 signatures to gain a place on the November 2012 ballot for Sheriff of Maricopa County. Maricopa County contains Phoenix and has over half the population of Arizona. Here is his web page. The Republican nominee is expected to be Joe Arpaio, who is 79 years old and has been in that office starting in 1992. Stauffer is a former registered Republican and has 29 years of law enforcement experience from New York city and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Only Eleven Declared Candidates for Americans Elect Have As Many as 40 Supporters

Only eleven candidates seeking the presidential nomination of Americans Elect have as many as forty supporters within the Americans Elect process. They are:

1. Buddy Roemer, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has 2,221 votes. Here is his web page.
2. Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City, Utah, has 954. Here is his web page.
3. Laurence Kotlikoff, Brookline, Massachusetts, has 638. Here is his web page. He is a professor of economics and was an economic advisor to President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors.
4. Michealene Risley, Woodside, California, has 588. She makes documentary films and is a published author. One of her films, “Flashcards” was nominated for an Oscar and concerns child abuse. Her other film is “Tapestries of Hope” about Zimbabwe. She doesn’t seem to have a campaign web page.
5. T. J. O’Hara, Rancho Santa Fe, California, has 189. Here is his web page. He is a businessman.
6. Mike Ballantine, registered to vote as a Green Party member in Pennsylvania, but has lived in Vietnam for the last six years. He has 117 votes. Here is his web page.
7. R. J. Harris, Norman, Oklahoma, has 80. Here is his web page. He is also seeking the Libertarian Party nomination.
8. Marlin Miller, Tennessee, has 70. Here is his web page. He is also the presidential nominee of American Third Position Party.
9. Dwight Smith, Detroit area, Michigan, has 58. He doesn’t seem to have a campaign web page.
10. David Jon Sponheim, Oak Harbor, Washington, has 47. Here is his web page. He is also the presidential nominee of America’s Third Party.
11. Verl Farnsworth, Mesa, Arizona, has 46. Here is his web page.

Randall Terry Says He Will Sue Kansas Democratic Party to be Placed on Party’s Caucus Ballot

Kansas does not hold presidential primaries; all Kansas parties use caucuses to choose delegates to national conventions. According to this story, Randall Terry, who has appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballots in a few states this year, will sue the Kansas Democratic Party because the party’s caucus ballots won’t list him as a presidential candidate.

Also, recently the Oklahoma Democratic Party ruled that Terry won’t receive any delegates, even though he won enough votes in the state’s Democratic primary to qualify for some delegates, because he didn’t file paperwork concerning delegates and also because the National Democratic Party recently determined that he is not a bona-fide Democrat.

Birmingham News Carries Op-Ed, Blasting Alabama Ballot Access Laws

The Birmingham news has this op-ed by Loretta Nall, criticizing Alabama’s ballot access laws. Ironically, those laws are worse than the op-ed says. The author of the op-ed says that almost 40,000 signatures are required by June. Actually the state requires 44,829 signatures by March 13. The only statewide group that appears to have met that burden is Americans Elect.

The lawsuit against the March 13 petition deadline has a hearing on Monday, March 26. The op-ed does not mention the lawsuit, which is called Stein v Chapman.

Santa Rosa Press-Democrat Article Covers Minor Party Lawsuit Against California Top-Two System

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat has this article about the upcoming court hearing in Rubin v Bowen, the California state court lawsuit filed by minor parties against Proposition 14. This lawsuit was filed on November 21, 2011 by the Peace & Freedom Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Alameda County Green Party. The hearing is in Oakland on April 10, Tuesday, at 9 a.m.