On December 6, the Country Party submitted 6,387 signatures to the Wyoming Secretary of State, on its petition to be a qualified party. The requirement is 3,740 signatures. The Country Party wants more power for the Wyoming state government, relative to the federal government. Assuming the petition is valid, and also assuming that the Constitution Party and the Americans Elect Party petitions are also valid, Wyoming will have six qualified parties in 2012, the most it has ever had since statehood. The Libertarian Party has been ballot-qualified in Wyoming continuously since 1994.

The Country Party only exists in Wyoming, and does not expect to nominate anyone for President. See this newspaper story about the party.

The November 28 edition of “The Hill”, a leading newspaper for covering Congress, has this story about Jill Stein’s campaign for the Green Party presidential nomination, with emphasis on her recent appearances at “Occupy” meetings in several cities. Thanks to Green Party Watch for the link.

According to this story, the Lubbock County government attorney recently advised the county elections officials that the redistricting lawsuit currently pending may cause Texas to hold its 2012 primary in May instead of March. This would put the petition deadline for new political parties, and for non-presidential independent candidates, into July. Texas law ties the date of the primary to those petition deadlines. Oddly, however, the petition deadline for independent presidential candidates is not tied to the primary date, and would remain in early May. But because Texas won’t let minor party and independent candidates circulate petitions until after the primary is over, obviously the independent presidential deadline would need to be changed as well, or otherwise the law would only give one week for the circulation of an independent presidential candidate petition.

The last time Texas held its primary in May in a presidential year was in 1984. Ever since 1988 it has been in March.