North Carolina election law says candidates who are discussed in the news media should be listed automatically on presidential primary ballots. However, the State Board of Elections refuses to list Fred Karger on the Republican ballot unless the state chair of the Republican Party wants him listed. See this story about the controversy, at Firedoglake.
According to this news story, Hawaii elections officials have determined that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
See here for an extensive story about Puerto Rico’s Republican presidential primary. That primary will be held March 18, a Sunday. The story does not say who is on that ballot, but six names will appear: Newt Gingrich, Fred Karger, Ron Paul, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. Roemer won the ballot position drawing and will be listed first.
A Georgia bill to modestly improve ballot access has been killed, because Rep. Mark Hamilton (R-Cumming), chair of the House Governmental Affairs Committee, is angry that minor party and independent candidates are saying the bill’s improvements aren’t good enough. See this story.
Georgia now requires a petition of 5% of the number of registered voters for district and county office. The Secretary of State’s Advisory Commission early this year recommended lowering that to 5% of the last presidential vote, and put that idea into HB 949. That represented a 25% cut in the required signatures. But now the other parts of HB 949 have been moved into HB 899, and HB 949 will be left to die. According to the story, Representative Hamilton didn’t like people advocating instead for HB 494, which removes all mandatory petitions and lets the filing fee requirement be the only barrier to November ballot access for independents and minor party candidates.
The Mitt Romney campaign has produced a 50-second ad, showing committed Democrats and committed supporters of President Obama saying on camera that they are organizing Democrats to vote in open primary states for Rick Santorum. See it via this link.
