A poll commissioned by the Detroit Free Press shows that 54% of Michigan voters consider it “likely” or “very likely” that they would consider supporting an independent gubernatorial candidate in 2010. Only 12% said it is “unlikely” that they would consider that idea. See this story.

Also, when voters are asked which major party they intend to support in 2010 legislative races, 25% say Democratic, and 24% say Republican, with the remainder saying they don’t know or “someone else”.

The article mentions that Michigan has never had an independent candidate for Governor on the ballot. This is true. Michigan did not have statutory procedures for independent candidates to get on the ballot until 1988. Courts had been telling Michigan that the state must have such procedures since 1976, but the legislature appeared so frightened of the idea, it refused to pass a bill on the subject for twelve years. Independent candidates would be disadvantaged in Michigan because the state has a straight-ticket device for political parties. Also Michigan puts independent candidates in the far-right column, or at the bottom of the list of candidates, depending on which ballot format is used in any particular county.

Other states that have never had an independent gubernatorial candidate on the ballot are Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Delaware and New Mexico are similar to Michigan. Neither state had procedures for independent candidates to get on the ballot until courts in 1976 and 1977 said they must have such procedures.

Ballot Access News has just learned that Pennsylvania is still distributing voter registration forms that don’t include any parties except the Democratic and Republican Parties. However, the Libertarian Party polled enough votes in November 2008 to be a recognized party under Pennsylvania law, so the state’s forms are obsolete and violating Pennsylvania’s own law.

Oklahoma behaved in much the same way in 1996 and early 1997, in regard to the Reform Party, which was a qualified party in Oklahoma starting in May 1996 and extending through November 1998. Oklahoma also kept using old registration forms that didn’t list the Reform Party as a choice. The Reform Party sued in December 1996 and the state gave in. That case was Reform Party of Oklahoma v Ward, 96-cv-1834-R.

The lapse is worse in Pennsylvania than it had been in Oklahoma. Oklahoma doesn’t give a political party any particular rights just because it attains a certain level of registrants. But Pennsylvania says a party’s nominees may not be on the November ballot automatically unless it has registration membership of 15%, so leaving the Libertarian Party hurts its ability to meet that goal.

The Daily Herald, a newspaper in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has this article about a Democratic Party-connected challenge to the Green Party’s candidate for U.S. House in the 14th district. The article notes that the Green candidate’s petition is being defended by Free and Equal, the ballot access organization created by Christina Tobin.