According to this story, Americans Elect has begun circulating the party petition in Rhode Island, which requires 17,115 valid signatures. The party petition procedure has only existed since 1994. It has never been used, except by the Moderate Party in 2010. Thanks to Ken Block for the link.
On October 4, a lower state court in Arizona agreed to re-open the lawsuit Boettcher v Bennett, and will hold a hearing on October 7 to hear more evidence. See this story.
The case involved who should be on the ballot in the November 8 special election for State Senate. Currently three candidates are on the ballot: incumbent Senate President Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis, and Olivia Cortes. The lawsuit charges that Cortes as a “sham candidate” put on the ballot by the efforts of supporters of Pearce for the purpose of splitting the opposition vote. Originally the court had ruled that there is no basis to remove a candidate from the ballot based on the candidate’s motives for running. But now, opponents of Pearce say they have new evidence about the relationship between Pearce supporters and Cortes. Cortes asked the State Supreme Court to stop the October 7 hearing, but the State Supreme Court refused to intervene. However, the Supreme Court also said that it will eventually hear the entire case.
In the meantime, all three candidates have agreed to debate each other.
On October 4, a New York trial court in Westchester County ruled that an individual may circulate a petition for an independent candidate, even if that individual had signed another petition to place someone on a primary ballot for that same office. Rice v Board of Elections in Westchester County, 14277/11.
As a result, the Libertarian Party petition to place its nominees on the November 8, 2011 ballot for local office in North Castle did have enough valid signatures. However, the candidates still won’t appear on the ballot, because the decision also says that the party’s lawsuit wasn’t filed and served quickly enough. Thanks to Mark Axinn for this news. Here is the decision.
This newspaper story from Lewiston, Maine, discusses the Americans Elect petition drive in that state, which began recently. The Maine petition requires 28,639 valid signatures, and must be completed by December 8, 2011. Furthermore, only voters who are not registered members of the three qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, and Green) may sign.
This petition procedure has been in place since 1976, and only once before has any group successfully used it. In 1995, the Reform Party completed this petition.
Maine has other, easier ballot access procedures for minor parties. In Maine, a statewide independent needs 4,000 signatures, and he or she is free to choose any short partisan label (as long as it doesn’t mimic the name of a qualified party). That label is printed on the general election ballot next to the name of the candidate. The easier independent petition method is the normal means for placing a minor party on the ballot, but Americans Elect is using the more difficult party petition because Americans Elect doesn’t know who it will be running for president, and the candidate petition requires the candidate to be named on the petition.
The Socialist Party of France will choose its presidential candidate by a primary on Sunday, October 9. According to this story, voters must pay one Euro in order to vote, and also must attest that they are sympathetic to the left side of the spectrum. It appears that the party is paying for the administration of the primary, and the purpose of charging each voter one Euro is to pay the expenses of administering the primary.
