Dennis Mikolay has this article in Atlantic Highlands Herald, a New Jersey electronic newspaper, about the idea that either or both Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer will run for President in November 2012 as the nominees of new or minor parties. Thanks to Steve Urbano for the link.
On November 22, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an opinion in Beaufort County v South Carolina Election Commission, 27069. The 3-judge majority interpreted the state law to mean that the counties must pay for some of the election administration costs for the Republican presidential primary. Two judges dissented. Here is the opinion.
The November 22 Knoxville News Sentinel has this story about the Americans Elect petition for party status in Tennessee.
On November 22, a U.S. District Court in Illinois ordered the filing period shifted to a later period, for candidates for U.S. House running in Illinois primaries. The statutory period for filing petitions for primary ballot access is November 28 through December 3. But the order shifts this period to December 23-27. See this story. The reason for the shift is that no one can know for sure what the boundaries of the districts will be.
The change has no effect on the deadline for independent candidates, and the deadline for nominees of unqualified parties. Their petitions, which must contain 5,000 signatures, are due on June 25, 2012.
An Illinois Circuit Court in Chicago will hear Schmidt v State Board of Elections on Wednesday, November 23. This is the case over whether the Green Party is automatically still a qualified party in the four U.S. House districts, and the four State house districts, in which it polled over 5% in November 2010.
Illinois law lets parties that are not ballot-qualified statewide be ballot-qualified in jurisdictions in which the party polled at least 5% of the vote in the last general election. However, some Illinois election officials say when a district changes boundaries, even to a miniscule extend, that qualified status disappears.
