Foster’s Daily Democrat, a daily newspaper in Dover, New Hampshire, has this fairly lengthy story about the Americans Elect petition for party status in New Hampshire. The story also mentions the Libertarian Party petition for party status. Neither group is finished collecting yet, but each group has more signatures than the required 13,698.

The New Hampshire party petition has existed since 1996, and until this year, had only been used once, by the Libertarians in 2000.

The story also has interesting information about the Americans Elect ballot situation in Maine. The party petition in that state has already been held to have enough valid signatures. The story mentions that in order to remain ballot-qualified in Maine after the 2012 election, the party must have at least 10,000 registrants who actually vote in November (it doesn’t matter whom they vote for). The old 5% vote test for a party to remain ballot-qualified no longer exists, thanks to a change in the 2009 law. The story mentions that Americans Elect in Maine now has fewer than 100 registrants. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

The Texas presidential primaries on May 29 will list these candidates: on the Republican ballot, Michele Bachmann, John Davis, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum; on the Democratic ballot, Bob Ely, President Obama, Darcy Richadson, and John Wolfe. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

The 2004 campaign season was almost eight years ago, and yet three courts are still pondering how to rule on various Ralph Nader lawsuits stemming from the 2004 election. As readers know, the Democratic National Committee and its allies spent millions of dollars, actively trying to block Ralph Nader from the ballot in as many states as possible.

The Democratic National Committee never reported these expenses to the Federal Election Commission. Nader sued the FEC in U.S. District Court in Washington for failing to investigate this reporting lapse. The District Court ruled in November 2011 that the FEC’s failure to follow its own rules in this matter was “harmless error”, and dismissed Nader’s lawsuit. Nader asked for a rehearing on December 9, 2011, and it is still pending. It is unusual for rehearing requests to remain pending for that length of time. Usually they are denied in less than a month, especially when the decision is before only a single judge.

Nader sued the Democratic National Committee, and the Maine Democratic Party, over its behavior in 2004. Several Nader lawsuits of this type were dismissed on the grounds that he had filed the lawsuits too late, but the Maine case does not have this problem, because Maine has a six year statute of limitations. The lower state court in Maine refused to permit a trial in the case, which is called Nader v The Maine Democratic Party. On September 14, 2011, Nader argued in the Maine Supreme Court that the lower court should have permitted a trial. It is now been almost six months and the Maine Supreme Court has not issued a decision.

The people who challenged Nader’s 2004 Pennsylvania petition have been trying for years to obtain money from one of Nader’s bank accounts in the District of Columbia. The Pennsylvania state courts had ruled that the challengers were entitled to over $80,000 from Nader, because the Pennsylvania courts had ruled Nader’s 2004 petition didn’t have enough valid signatures. One of Nader’s banks still hasn’t released the money to the challengers. On April 21,2010, the D.C. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on whether the money should be released, and there is still no decision in that case, even though it has been almost two years since the oral argument. That case is Serody v Nader.