Independent Political Report says Gary Johnson will officially declare that he has become a registered Libertarian, and that he will seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, on December 15. See here. The report has already been picked up by Political Wire.

On December 14, Johnson, in a speech, mentioned that in 1995, Newt Gingrich introduced a bill providing for the death penalty for anyone who transported as little as eight ounces of an illegal drug (including marijuana) into the United States.

Also on December 14, some news reports said that the Michigan Secretary of State had refused to let Gary Johnson withdraw from the Republican presidential primary ballot, and that this might make it impossible for him to be the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee. The Michigan law does not interfere with the Libertarian Party’s right to nominate Gary Johnson in that state, even though his name remains on the Republican presidential primary ballot. The Michigan law covers independents, and clearly does not refer to presidential primary candidates, because it refers to candidates who applied for a place on a primary ballot by petition or filing fee. Johnson did not apply to be on the Michigan Republican primary ballot. He was listed automatically because he had been discussed in the news media earlier as someone seeking the Republican nomination. Michigan, like certain other states, lists presidential primary candidates automatically, without any input from them. The Secretary of State refused his request to withdraw because the withdrawal form forces the candidate to say he is not running for President.

Americans Elect submitted over 1,630,000 signatures earlier this year, to meet a requirement of 1,030,080 valid signatures. The California Secretary of State’s web page has this chart, showing which counties have finished checking the signatures. Los Angeles and San Diego, two of the most three populous counties, have now finished checking the petition. Only fifteen counties still haven’t finished. So far the petition-checking process shows a validity rate of 67.75%, and Americans Elect only needs to have 63.2% valid in order to succeed.

Late on December 13, twenty-eight U.S. House members from Texas filed a document with the 3-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio that is hearing one of the Texas redistricting cases. The letter asks the judges to set a unified primary election for all office in 2012. The letter says, “We believe that a unified primary is a common sense approach to the United States Supreme Court’s stay of Congressional and Legislative plans. A single primary election would reduce voter confusion, reduce the cost to taxpayers of two primaries, and minimize voter fatigue due to multiple elections in a small period of time. We therefore ask this honorable Court to enter orders adopting a single primary date for 2012 at the earliest practicable date.”

The letter appears to have been initiated by the Republican members of the U.S. House from Texas. The first two pages contain the signatures of all 23 Republican members of the U.S. House from Texas, except for Ron Paul. Chances are that Paul would have signed it also, but he is probably away from Congress, campaigning. On the third page are the signatures of six of the nine Democratic members from Texas. The only Democrats who didn’t sign the letter are Silvestre Reyes, Charles Gonzalez, and Lloyd Doggett.

The Republican members of Congress from Texas appear to be in defiance of the Texas Republican Party, which favors keeping the presidential primary in March. See this story about the wishes of the Republican Party.

Assuming the court agrees with the 28 members of Congress who signed the letter, that primary will almost certainly be in April or May, not March. That would automatically extend petitioning deadlines for minor parties and for non-presidential independents, and would almost certainly result in a later deadline for independent presidential petitions as well, although that would take a tweak in the law.