On May 15, the Maine Libertarian Party held a party meeting, and voted to attempt a petition to qualify the party for the 2012 ballot. See this story.

The full party petition in Maine has only existed since 1976, and has only been used successfully once, by the Reform Party in late 1995. However, even if the petition drive fails, any group that tells the state that it intends to complete this petition gains the ability for voters to register as members of that group. The newspaper story says 27,544 signatures are required. However, that is not accurate. The 2012 requirement will be 5% of the number of people who vote for Governor in November 2010, and obviously no one knows what the number will be. But it is likely to be approximately 20,000 signatures. No state ever has higher turnout in midterm years than in presidential years. The 27,544 figure is what would have been required this year, and is based on the very high-turnout 2008 election.

Minor parties generally gain qualified status in Maine by running someone for Governor who then polls 5%. That is a far easier method, because the candidate petition for Governor is 4,000 signatures, and a party label is permitted for candidate petitions. Libertarians in Maine were free to have used that method this year, but did not do so. Such a petition is due May 27, 2010.

The news story mentions that the Maine Libertarian Party had qualified status in 1992. This is correct. The party got that status by yet a third way. Maine law lets a group become a qualified party if any independent candidate for Governor or President who got 5% assigns his or her votes to that group, up to a year after the election. The Libertarian Party got qualified status in Maine in 1991 because an independent candidate for Governor in 1990, Andrew Adams, “gave” his 5% vote total to the party after the election was over. Adams had not been listed on the ballot as a Libertarian, just as an independent. No other state has ever had such a method for creating a new ballot-qualified party. The Maine Libertarian Party qualified status only lasted a year because it was unable to poll 5% for President in 1992. The law is different now, as a result of several improvements in the last few years. If a party gets qualified status under the new laws, it keeps it as long as it has at least 10,000 registered members who actually turn out and vote in any general election. It doesn’t matter who they vote for, just that they go to the polls and vote.

On May 15, as expected, the Indiana Democratic Central Committee chose Brad Ellsworth as its nominee for U.S. Senate this year. See this story.

No one appeared on the Indiana Democratic Party primary ballot for U.S. Senate this year, and Indiana does not permit write-ins in primaries. The incumbent, Senator Evan Bayh, had surprised his party and his state when he announced one day before the petition was due that he would not run for re-election. Because virtually no one had expected this action, no one else had collected the needed 4,500 valid signature to be on the primary ballot. Indiana lets qualified major parties find a new nominee when no one was nominated at its primary.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, with backing from the county Board of Supervisors and the County Counsel, has decided to let voters fill out voter registration forms using electronic signatures. See this May 14 San Jose Mercury News story. Santa Clara County is the most populous county in northern California, and includes not only San Jose, but the other smaller cities in the neighborhood that are collectively known to the world as “Silicon Valley.”

The initial eight voters whose electronic signatures were accepted used iPads, iPhones, and other mobile touch-screen devices. The article indicates that the California Secretary of State acknowledges that each California County Elections office has the authority to make this decision for its own county. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the link.