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Delaware Minor Party Requirement Now Known Exactly

Posted on January 12, 2012 by adminJanuary 12, 2012

Political parties in Delaware may be ballot-qualified in 2012 if they have at least 608 registered members. The law requires registration of one-tenth of 1% of the state total, as of December 31, 2011. The registration data for that date is now known.

Besides the Democratic and Republican Parties, the only parties that currently meet the requirement are the Independent Party and the Libertarian Party. The Independent Party has 2,401 registrants, and the Libertarian Party has 819 registrants. However, it isn’t the number of registered voters in the party now that counts, but the number as of August 21, 2012.

Currently, parties that don’t meet the requirement, but which are at least half-way, are the Green Party with 530, the Working Families Party with 486, and the Constitution Party with 454. It will be more difficult for these parties, or any parties, to accumulate more registrants after February 24. Starting on that day, voters may not switch parties, until after the presidential primary is over. Starting on April 25, they can again switch parties, but only for a few more months.

The Working Families Party has still not decided whether it will increase its registration. The Green Party and the Constitution Parties are working on their registration drives.

North Carolina State Court Hears 3 1/2 Hours of Argument over Redistricting, and Sets Another Hearing for January 20

Posted on January 12, 2012 by adminJanuary 12, 2012

On January 12, a North Carolina 3-judge state court heard three and one-half hours of argument over the redistricting plan, but not only didn’t rule from the bench, but scheduled another hearing for January 20. See this story.

It is somewhat likely that North Carolina will postpone its May primary. If that happens, independent candidates will have more time to submit petitions. Currently, independent candidate petitions are due in June. In 2004, when redistricting was late to be settled, North Carolina extended the independent candidate deadline for all offices, not just district offices.

Michigan Secretary of State Puts Barack Obama on Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot, Against Wishes of Democratic Party

Posted on January 12, 2012 by adminJanuary 12, 2012

Michigan’s Secretary of State has put President Barack Obama on the Democratic presidential primary ballot, against the wishes of the state Democratic Party. See this story. Also see this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for one of the links. The second story is more accurate than the first story. The first story erroneously says Obama is on the Republican primary ballot.

The Michigan Democratic Party doesn’t want a presidential primary, and will choose delegates in a caucus. UPDATE: here is a third news story, which explains why the Democratic Party is upset.

Ron Paul Placed Second in New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary

Posted on January 12, 2012 by adminJanuary 12, 2012

On January 12, the New Hampshire Secretary of State posted election returns on his web page from the January 10 presidential primary. It is the custom in New Hampshire to count write-ins in the Democratic presidential primary received by all candidates who appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot, and vice versa. No tally is made for write-in candidates who were not on any party’s presidential primary ballot.

The returns for the Democratic primary can be seen here. Ron Paul received 2,273 write-ins in the Democratic presidential primary, so he placed second in that primary behind President Obama, and ahead of the other thirteen candidates whose names were printed on the Democratic ballot. No one will ever know how many write-ins Hillary Clinton received, since her votes weren’t tallied because she wasn’t on any 2012 primary ballot in New Hampshire. But, the total number of write-ins for people who weren’t on any primary ballot, in the Democratic race, was only 759, so obviously Clinton received a smaller number than 759. Mitt Romney placed third in the Democratic primary, with 1,808 write-ins. Thanks to Robbin Stewart for this news.

Wisconsin Elections Officials Will Need Extra Time to Validate Signatures on Gubernatorial Recall Petition

Posted on January 12, 2012 by adminJanuary 12, 2012

Wisconsin state election officials say they will need more than the legally mandated 31 days to process the gubernatorial recall petition. This story says the signatures will be turned in next week, and there may be as many as 1,500,000 signatures. The state will not check to see if each signer is a registered voter, but will eliminate duplicate signatures.