The Libertarian Party and the Green Party are both increasing the rate at which they are petitioning for 2012 ballot status. Libertarians are attempting the Oklahoma party petition, and have 7,600 signatures so far. 51,739 valid signatures are required. The party still expects to bring a lawsuit against the new March petition deadline in Oklahoma.

In New Hampshire, the Libertarian Party petition, which hasn’t been attempted by any group since 2000, now has 1,100 signatures. 13,698 are required. New Hampshire petitioning is especially difficult because only one signature may appear on a petition sheet.

Greens are now petitioning in New Mexico and Hawaii, and also attempts are being made to organize the Vermont Green Party. In Vermont, a party doesn’t need a petition if it shows that it has at least town committees in any ten towns. The Vermont Green Party hasn’t met the Vermont organization test since 2002, although in 2004 it used the alternate petition to put some of its statewide nominees on the ballot.

Some journalists and political commentators believe that closed primaries produce “extremist” government officials, and that if only independent voters could participate in party primaries, primaries would then be won by “centrist” or “moderate” candidates. Therefore, it is worth noting that the rules of the Iowa Republican Straw Poll permit any Iowa resident who is at least age 16 and 1/2, vote. See this wikipedia article on the Iowa Republican straw poll.

There is a great deal more evidence than this that there is no correlation between type of primary system, and the type of office-holder who wins. Political scientist Boris Shor studied polarization and partisanship in state legislatures for the period 1995-2010. He analyzed hundreds of thousands of bits of data, specifically legislative roll-calls, and legislators’ responses to questionaires. He found no correlation between type of primary system and partisanship. Although he did find that California had the most polarized legislature during the years he studied, Washington state had the second-most polarized legislature, and most of that period, Washington state had either a blanket primary or a top-two primary. He also found that Wisconsin had one of the most polarized legislatures, and Wisconsin has always used a classic open primary.

California used blanket primaries for all special elections 1967-2010, but the state legislators and members of Congress elected in special elections in California in those years were just as partisan as legislators and congressmembers elected in regularly-elected elections. Both of California’s John Birch Society congressmen were elected initially in special elections. Also, the people elected in 2011 in California’s special elections, under the top-two system, has been the same kind of person who had been elected under the old semi-closed system.

Steve Kornacki, news editor of Salon, has this column in the August 14 New York Post. It says that the presidential election of 2012 has much in common with the past presidential elections of 1980 and 1992, two elections in which voters were unusually interested in a presidential campaign outside of the two major parties.