According to this story, on November 16, delegates to the Rhode Island Republican Party state convention will decide whether to provide that only registered Republicans may vote in the 2012 congressional primary. The story says nothing about the April 24 presidential primary. If the party does decide to limit its September primary to Republicans, the party may need to win a lawsuit first.
The lawsuit Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections will proceed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. This is the case over whether election officials must count write-in votes for declared write-in presidential candidates in the District of Columbia. In 1974 the D.C. Court of Appeals had ruled that D.C. must print write-in space on November ballots for President. The D.C. Board complied, and set up a procedure by which declared write-in candidates for president may file a declaration of write-in candidacy. However, the Board has never counted the write-in votes for any such presidential candidate.
The U.S. District Court had upheld the Board’s policy, ruling that the interest in saving money and work outweighs the voter’s right to have his or her votes counted. Both sides then attempted mediation, but that has not worked, so the case now goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
On Sunday, October 9, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this Emergency Motion to Compel Complaince with Preliminary Injunction, and this brief in support. Although the party won injunctive relief on September 7, putting it on the 2012 ballot, the Secretary of State has not implemented the injunction. Especially worrying is the inability of persons who want to run in Ohio’s March 2012 Libertarian presidential primary to begin collecting signatures, since the Secretary of State has not prepared the petition forms. UPDATE: the Ohio Libertarian Party is not entitled to its own presidential primary. However, the party is worried about the need for its candidates to be circulating petitions to get themselves on the party’s primary ballot for office other than President.
Sometime during the first week in October, the Americans Elect web page updated the number of signatures that have been obtained on the group’s ballot access petitions so far this year. The new national total is 1,829,264. That contrasts with 1,755,557, the figure that had been posted on August 30.
Because Americans Elect submitted 1,621,627 signatures in California, a simple subtraction shows that Americans Elect has collected 207,637 signatures outside of California so far.
By mid-October of 1995, the Reform Party had only begun ballot access petitioning or registration activity in California, so Americans Elect is ahead of the Reform Party, for this point in the cycle. However, the Reform Party had the advantage that it would soon be recognized in Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Virginia, without having to petition, based on already-qualified state parties in those four states that were about to affiliate with the national Reform Party.
On October 6, Irregular Times posted a link to the Americans Elect draft proposal on how candidates may seek the group’s presidential nomination, and also opened a discussion of those rules. That thread of comments is worthwhile reading.
