John Avlon has this article on CNN, detailing how presidential candidates may qualify for the Americans Elect on-line presidential primary. The article says candidates nominated by the Americans Elect leadership need 10,000 “clicks” from the ranks of people who have signed up to be voters in the Americans Elect primary. Those not suggested by the leadership need 100,000 “clicks”. The story also says that currently, 110,000 people have signed up to be Americans Elect primary voters.
According to this article, the Working Families Party will assist in enlarging the ongoing protest on Wall Street.
On September 29, a lower state court in Arizona heard testimony in a lawsuit over whether Olivia Cortes should remain on the ballot in the upcoming recall election of State Senate President Russell Pearce. See this story. In Arizona, when a recall petition succeeds, the office-holder being recalled is on the ballot, along with any other candidates who have petitioned to run in the same recall election. The election is non-partisan. The person who gets the most votes wins.
Three candidates are on the ballot: Pearce, an opponent of Senator Pearce (who hopes to out-poll Pearce) and a third candidate, Olivia Cortes. Evidence suggests that Cortes only got on the ballot with the help of Pearce supporters, that she is a “sham” candidate, as the story makes clear. Pearce supporters know that Pearce is unpopular with most Hispanic voters, and presumably put Cortes on the ballot to split the anti-Pearce vote. However, there is no logical or legal principle that would eliminate someone from the ballot, based on her motivation or on who helped get her on the ballot. The pending case is somewhat similar to a case in Arizona in 2010, when the Green Party went to court to remove some of its nominees from the ballot on the grounds that they were “sham” candidates, recruited by Republican activists. Although some of the 2010 “sham” Greens voluntarily withdrew, the court ruled that there was no legal basis to remove candidates from the ballot, no matter what their motivation for running. A decision in the current case is expected on Monday, October 3.
This SurveyUSA poll surveys Florida Republicans who are likely to vote in that state’s presidential primary next year. It shows that Mitt Romney has 27% support, and Herman Cain is second at 25%. But, it also shows that Republican voters under age 65 prefer Cain to Romney. It also shows that males of all age groups prefer Cain above all other contenders. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
Sponsors of the Missouri bill to move the presidential primary from February 7 to early March have given up. The bill is considered dead. Therefore, the 2012 primary will be on February 7. However, the state Republican Party has decided that the primary will be a “beauty contest” only, and that the state party will use March caucuses to choose the delegates to the national convention.
Missouri will also be holding presidential primaries for the Democratic, Constitution, and Libertarian Parties. These are also “beauty contest” presidential primaries, which don’t actually chose delegates for those parties either.
The bill to move the date of the presidential primaries also would have raised the filing fee to run in a presidential primary from $1,000 to $5,000 in 2012, and $10,000 thereafter. The failure of this bill to pass increases the odds that candidates who are seeking the Constitution Party nomination, or the Libertarian Party nomination, will now file. Missouri Libertarians have used their presidential primary in the past, just to test the voter appeal of the various candidates. Missouri does not have registration by party, and any voter is free to choose any party’s presidential primary ballot. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for this news.
