In the United States, ballot access lawsuits can even involve student body elections, as this article shows. A Texas state court judge has postponed an election for the presidency of the University of Texas student body, so as to settle a dispute over whether the student body election rules violate Freedom of Association.
On February 28, the Arizona Senate passed SCR 1021, which would put a ballot measure on the November 2012 ballot, asking voters if they wish to stop funding public funding for candidates for state office. The vote was 21-9. All Republicans voted “Yes” and all Democrats voted “No.” Now the measure goes to the House.
On February 28, the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee unanimously passed two bills that will help petitions this year, for both primary candidates and general election candidates. Both bills had previously passed the House.
HB 1151 says 2012 petitions are valid if they use the old U.S. House districts from the 2001-2010 period. This is important for statewide petitions for president and U.S. Senate, because statewide petitions have a distribution requirement. Such statewide petitions need 400 signatures from each U.S. House district.
HB 736 moves the 2012 non-presidential primary from June to August, and also moves the petition deadline for general election petitions for non-presidential office from June to August as well. This gives more time for minor party and independent candidates petitioning to run for Congress.
On February 27, the Florida Secretary of State said that America’s Party is now ballot-qualified. It had been formed in the summer of 2008 by Alan Keyes, after he lost the race for the Constitution Party presidential nomination. In 2008 it was called America’s Independent Party.
After three years of electoral inactivity, the party has now changed its name to America’s Party, and in an on-line national presidential convention on the evening of February 18, chosen Thomas Hoefling for president and J. D. Ellis for vice-president. Here is the campaign web page. The party re-qualified in Florida by submitting a new set of bylaws that conform to the state’s rather fussy requirements, and by submitting a list of officers who are registered members of that party. It is the first party to have been eliminated from the Florida ballot by the new bylaws requirements that has now successfully re-filed.
It is not known if Alan Keyes is still interested in the party. He did not participate in the on-line voting for the 2012 presidential nomination.
It seems somewhat likely that the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Prohibition Party may also re-file successfully in Florida.
On February 29, the Nebraska Secretary of State said he will place these names on presidential primary ballots:
Republican: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum.
Democratic: President Obama.
Libertarian: Roger Gary, R. J. Harris, Gary Johnson, Carl Person, Bill Still, R. Lee Wrights.
Anyone who doesn’t wish to be listed may remove his name no later than March 10. Nebraska is one of the states in which state election officials place presidential candidates on the presidential primary ballot if the candidates are mentioned in news media. Candidates need not bother to apply.
