The Oklahoma State Board of Elections has determined that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. This is the first time any newly-qualifying party has been recognized in Oklahoma since 2000.

The Board says the Libertarian Party has 41,070 valid signatures, which is short of the legal requirement of 51,739. The status of the Libertarian Party now depends on what happens next in the party’s lawsuit, which challenges the March 1 deadline, and also challenges the due process problem that the 2011 legislation that moved the deadline deprived the party of its legal right to have one year to complete the petition drive.

John Fockler, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, has received at least 750 write-in votes in the March 6, 2012 Libertarian primary, and probably over 800. He needed 500 write-ins to qualify to be listed on the November ballot. The election night primary returns had shown him with only 407, but election night returns for write-in candidates are invariably not accurate.

His name wasn’t printed on the primary ballot because he would have needed a petition of 500 valid names, and people who had voted in a 2010 primary (other than the 2010 Libertarian primary) were not eligible to sign. Also, because the state changed the date of its primary from May to March at the very end of 2011, there wasn’t much time for candidates to collect signatures on primary petitions. Thanks to Kevin Knedler for this news.

On March 28, the Ohio Senate passed SB 295 by 23-10. It repeals last year’s omnibus election law. Last year’s omnibus election law had moved the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties from 120 days, to 90 days, before the primary. That was the 2011 session’s attempt to create a constitutional deadline for newly-qualifying parties.

If the Ohio House also passes SB 295, then the petition deadline will move back to the same date (November of the year before the election) that was held unconstitutional in 2006 by the 6th Circuit, as least for presidential election years. Ohio holds its primary for all office in early March in presidential years, and in early May in midterm years.

The Republican majority in the Senate passed the bill, repealing the 2011 omnibus election law, because if they don’t repeal it, the voters will have an opportunity to vote on it, and the voters will probably repeal it. The majority in the Senate would prefer to simply cancel that popular vote. The reason the 2011 law was put up for a referendum vote in November 2012 is that the omnibus election law has lots of controversial features that Democrats and labor unions vociferously oppose. Democrats and labor together did the difficult work of gathering the referendum signatures. Ironically, now the Democrats in the legislature want to leave that referendum on the November 2012 ballot, because they expect to win the vote; and Republicans would rather just cancel the referendum vote.