On June 11, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford vetoed HB 3746, which made ballot access more difficult for independent candidates. On June 16, the House then entertained a vote to override his veto. However, the attempt to override the veto failed. The vote was 60-43, but it takes a two-thirds vote to override a veto in South Carolina, as in most states.

HB 3746 required independent candidate petitions to be notarized. It said that newly-registered voters could not sign the petition. It required independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in early June, even though the petition deadline itself (which the bill wasn’t changing) is in mid-July. Governor Sanford is a Republican and both houses of the legislature have Republican majorities.

The Arizona Green Party is ballot-qualified and nominates by primary. Arizona requires petitions for candidates to get on the primary ballot of their own party. The only person who submitted a petition to be on the Green Party primary ballot for Governor, Larry Gist, seems assured of being the party’s nominee, because a challenge to his petition has been withdrawn. See this story. The challenge had been filed by a Democrat, but the challenge has been dropped because it appears Gist’s petition has enough valid signatures. Only independent voters, and registered Greens, were eligible to sign.

Activists in the Green Party do not know Gist, and were not involved in helping him get himself on the party’s primary ballot. He needed 1,231 signatures, and submitted 2,980.

On June 15, Port Chester, New York, held a partisan election to elect six village trustees. The winners include the only Conservative Party nominee (he was not the nominee of any other party), and one of the two independent candidates. Only two Hispanics were on the ballot. The one who was a Democratic Party nominee was elected; the one who was a Republican Party nominee was not elected.

The Republican Party ran a full slate of six candidates, and got a second line on the ballot for each of them, under the slogan “Citizens for Tax Relief.” Two of the Republicans were elected.

Democrats ran only four candidates, and two of them were elected. Here are the vote totals from the Village’s web page. However, that web page does not show the party affiliations of each candidate. The winning independent candidate, whose ballot label was “Taxpayers Relief Movement”, is Bart Didden, and he came in first. The only Conservative Party nominee was John Branca, and he came in third. The independent who did not win is Gene Ceccarelli, whose ballot slogan was “Pride in Port Chester.” The four Democrats were Daniel Brakewood, Luis Marino (both of whom won), Gregory Adams, and Anthony Saline. John Palma was a write-in candidate. The six Republicans were Joseph Kenner, Saverio Terenzi (both of whom won), Richard Cuddy, Fabiola Montaya, Philip Semprevivo, and Michael Scarola.

This AP story has a small picture of the ballot, but even with the magnifying device, the ballot is too small to read well. Each candidate’s name was printed on the ballot six times, in a vertical column. The parties are arranged in order, from left to right: Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Citizens for Tax Relief, Pride in Port Chester, and Taxpayers Relief Movement. The single candidate of the Taxpayers Relief Movement placed first.