Ohio’s new Secretary of State, Jon Husted, has told the press that if the Ohio legislature is slow to draw new boundaries for U.S. House districts, the state won’t be able to cope with the scheduled early March primary in 2012. In that case, Husted will ask the legislature for a later 2012 primary. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On January 4, a lower state court in Chicago hears the lawsuit over Rahm Emanuel’s residency. A decision is expected by the end of the day. See this story.
In other Chicago election news, on January 3, the Chicago Board of Elections dismissed the challenge to the petition of Stephanie D. Neely, the incumbent City Treasurer. The challenge to her only opponent, Elida M. Cruz, is still underway.
Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch has written a bill to amend various provisions of the election code. It is HB 91. Among other things, it provides that a presidential candidate nominated for the general election by a qualified party may withdraw, if he or she wishes. The likely reason this provision has been included is that in 2008, the ballot-qualified Constitution Party nominated Ron Paul as its presidential nominee. The Secretary of State had no recourse except to print his name on the November ballot, even though Paul asked that he not be listed on the ballot.
In presidential elections, the true candidates running in November are the candidates for presidential elector. The Constitution Party had nominated presidential elector candidates who said if they were sent to the electoral college, they would vote for Ron Paul, so under the law at that time, Ron Paul was forced to be a candidate against his wishes. The Constitution Party of Montana at the time was at odds with the national Constitution Party. The national convention of the Constitution Party had chosen Chuck Baldwin as its presidential nominee.
“Primaries for Palin” is a new web page, set up last month, to encourage Democrats and supporters of President Obama to vote for Sarah Palin in Republican presidential primaries. The site includes a chart that shows the rules on who can vote in Republican presidential primaries in each state. See the site’s “Voting Guide” for that chart.
“
The Natural Law Party was founded in the United States, and in many other countries, in 1992. But the worldwide leadership of the Transcendental Meditation movement, which had created these parties, advised its followers almost ten years ago to shut them down.
However, the Michigan Natural Law Party continues to run candidates, and continues to be a ballot-qualified party. Michigan requires more signatures for statewide independent candidates, and for new parties, than any other state in the Midwest. But Michigan makes it easy for already-qualified parties to remain on the ballot. Old parties must run at least one statewide candidate who polls a number of votes equal to 1% of the vote cast for the winning candidate for Secretary of State. In 2010, new parties in Michigan needed 38,024 signatures to get on the ballot; statewide independents needed 30,000; but a party could remain on (for 2012) with only 16,083 votes.
Leaders of the Michigan Natural Law Party realize that their qualified status is valuable, so they keep the party alive. In presidential election years, the party awards its presidential nomination to whichever presidential candidate seems to deserve its nomination, and who would otherwise have trouble getting on the ballot. In 2004 the party nominated the Socialist Party presidential candidate, Walt Brown, for President. In 2008 it nominated independent candidate Ralph Nader.
In order to survive in midterm years, the party runs candidates for some of the less important statewide offices. In 2010, as in every previous election year, the party polled enough votes to remain on. However, its 2010 vote was lower than it has been in most years in the past. Its 2010 nominee for State Board of Education, who polled more votes than any other NLP nominee that year, received 1.11% of the vote for that office. The party’s highest statewide vote-getter is generally above 2%. Its best ever was 1998, when it polled 3.12% for University Regent.
