Currently, West Virginia defines “political party” to be a group that polled at least 1% for Governor in the last election. Two bills have been introduced in the 2012 session to expand this definition.

HB 3248, by Delegate Mike Manypenny (D-Taylor) says a group is a “party” if it polled 1% for any statewide office. SB 63, by Senator Clark Barnes (R-Randolph) makes the same change, and in addition, a group is a “party” as well, if it has registration of at least one-twentieth of 1%. If SB 63 were law right now, the Libertarian and Constitution Parties would be ballot-qualified. Currently the only ballot-qualified parties in West Virginia are the Democratic, Republican, and Mountain Parties. The Mountain Party is the West Virginia affiliate of the national Green Party.

Illinois State Senator John O. Jones, who has been in the Illinois Senate since the 2002 election, will not appear on the March 2012 Republican primary ballot because his petition was challenged and Jones decided he can’t defend his own petition. He says he may form his own political party and petition onto the November ballot. He is also free to be an independent candidate if he wishes. See this story.

Jones is the second incumbent Republican state legislator this year to be forced off a primary ballot. The first was Representative Rosemary Mulligan, who intends to win re-nomination in her primary via write-in votes. Unlike Jones, Mulligan has no primary opponent, so it is obvviously much easier for her to win a write-in nomination in the primary than it would be for Jones. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

The North Carolina ballot access case is now docketed in the U.S. Supreme Court. It is Greene v Bartlett, 11-868. It challenges the ballot access law for independent candidates for the U.S. House. The law is so severe, no independent candidate for U.S. House has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot for that office in North Carolina. North Carolina has been using government-printed ballots since 1901.

In 2010, the Service Employees International Union decided to support an independent candidate for U.S. House in one district in North Carolina, and it submitted a petition, which was checked and found to be valid. However, the candidate named in that petition refused to run. But because the petition appears to have succeeded, the U.S. District Court, and the 4th circuit, said that the procedure is not impossible, and upheld it. No evidence was ever gathered about the SEIU petition drive, but it probably cost the SEIU between $50,000 and $100,000 for paid petitioners. The law requires the signatures of 4% of the registered voters in the district, which is approximately 20,000 valid signatures. The law also requires a large filing fee in addition.