William H. Webster supports American Elect, according to this story. Webster was a judge on the 8th circuit between 1973 and 1978. Between 1978 and 1987, he was director of the FBI. From 1987 to 1991, he was director of the CIA. He is the only person who held both of those latter two jobs.
The story also reveals that Americans Elect will submit its Missouri ballot access petition early in 2012.
As reported previously, on September 13, New York held a special election for U.S. House, 9th district, with three candidates on the ballot. The only person running who wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat was Chris Hoeppner, the Socialist Workers nominee. He only received one-fifth of 1% of the total vote. This copy of the ballot shows why. Hoeppner was on a lower line than the other candidates. Even the write-in space, and a blank space for a Green Party nominee (if there had been one, which there wasn’t) were on the top line. An ordinary person would not perceive that Hoeppner was running in the U.S. House race.
The text of Pennsylvania SB 1282, which provides that each U.S. House district should elect its own presidential elector, is now available here. The bill is badly worded. It implies that nominees of qualified parties for presidential elector must live in the district they seek to represent, but the bill makes no mention of independent presidential candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties. If the bill passes as written, it will be subject to litigation because it is so unclear.
Current law says that the presidential nominees of qualified parties choose candidates for presidential elector. This already-existing provision is unique to Pennsylvania; no other state tells the presidential nominees themselves that they must choose their candidates for presidential elector. In other states, the state parties choose the candidates for presidential elector.
The bill, on page two, says the presidential nominees of qualified parties “shall designate one nominee from each congressional district.” This suggests that the nominee must live in that district, but does not make this clear.
According to this story by Anna Sale, Morton H. Meyerson is on Americans Elect’s advisory committee. Meyerson is former chair and CEO of Perot Systems, and also former President of Electronic Data Systems, both companies formed many years ago by Ross Perot. The Dallas Symphony Center is named for Meyerson.
According to CNN, the South Carolina Republican Party will announce on October 3 that its presidential primary will be January 21. See here. The only state that has not yet set its presidential primary date is New Hampshire; however, the Nevada and Iowa caucus dates are also still not determined.
