Missouri is holding presidential primaries on February 7 for the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. The Republican Party of Missouri has already said that the presidential primary results will not be used to determine the national convention delegates. Instead the Republican Party will choose delegates at caucuses in March.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, a Democrat, has this op-ed in the Kansas City Star, urging voters to vote, even though the Republican primary is just a beauty contest. However, her op-ed does not say that if the Missouri Republican Party were to use the primary, it would be in violation of national party rules and would run the risk of losing half its delegates.

Missouri will print up presidential primary ballots for each of the qualified parties, even if no one files in any particular party’s primary. Missouri permits write-ins in presidential primaries. To get on the ballot, a candidate must pay $1,000. So far, no one has signed up for the presidential primary ballots of the Democratic, Libertarian or Constitution Parties, but filing doesn’t close until November 22. Republicans who have already filed for the “beauty contest” primary so far are Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, Michael Meehan, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link.

Some in the Occupy Wall Street movement seem to have started using the name the “Occupy Party”, and a webpage now exists with the name occupyparty.org. There is no indication on the web page that anyone is thinking of creating an electoral party, merely that if the Tea Party can use the term “party” for itself, why not the Occupy Party. The only information on the web page about organizing is that there will be an Occupy Party national meeting in Philadelphia starting on July 4, 2012, and continuing through October.

Oddly, the web page uses a picture of a crowd of smiling people who are looking up and waving American flags. When Americans Elect first set up its web page, it also used that same picture, although it was cropped to include less of the picture. Thanks to Howard Wilson for the news.

Knowthyneighbor.org is an organization that supports legal rights for gay people. It was created by two Massachusetts residents. They believe that is is useful to post searchable databases of the names and residence addresses of voters who sign ballot measure petitions in support of measures that injure gay people.

Knowthyneighbor.org has posted photocopies of the petition sheets submitted in Arkansas, on a proposal to make it illegal for same-sex couples to adopt children. Included is a searchable database. Any person visiting the web page can search for any particular potential signer. If the database finds that signer, then a clickable link takes the viewer to a photocopy of the particular petition sheet signed by that voter. Then, the viewer can see the appearance of that signer’s signature, and learn the signer’s date of birth, and the signer’s residence address.

The web page also has searchable data bases for similar anti-gay ballot measures in Florida and Massachusetts, and says soon it will post data for Washington. However, at least the Florida and Massachusetts links don’t go to an actual copy of a petition sheet. For Florida and Massachusetts, a viewer can search by either name or address to see if any particular person signed the ballot measure, but it is not possible to view the petition itself.

If the idea of searchable databases for petition signers spreads, it will become more difficult in the future to persuade people to sign petitions. In the 1940’s, newspapers sometimes published the names and addresses of people who signed petitions for the Communist Party or the Progressive Party, and the searchable database idea may spread from ballot measure petitions to petitions to qualify new parties for the ballot. Thanks to The Militant for this news.