The independent candidate petition to place Wendell Fant on the November 2010 ballot in North Carolina’s U.S. House district 8 does have enough valid signatures.  The law required 16,929 valid signatures.  The campaign handed in 35,450 raw signatures, and 21,084 were valid.  The validity rate was 59.5%.

This success sets a new nationwide record for the most difficult petition requirement that has ever been met, for the purpose of placing a candidate on the ballot for U.S. House.  The previous record was set in Ohio in 1954, when independent incumbent Frazier Reams overcame a signature requirement of 12,919 valid signatures.  There was also one instance in Illinois which was higher than 12,919, but in that Illinois instance, the petition was never checked because it was not challenged.

The irony of the Fant petition is that Fant himself has not yet said if he will accept the nomination.  He is a former staffer for the incumbent Democrat, Larry Kissell.  The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is angry at Congressman Kissell because he voted against the health insurance bill.  The SEIU provided the resources for the Fant petition.  Starting in 2006, independent candidates in North Carolina must pay a filing fee, or submit yet another petition in lieu of the filing fee.  The filing fee for U.S. House is 1% of the annual salary, or approximately $1,700.  Fant won’t be on the ballot unless that fee is paid.

Another irony of the Fant petition is that a recent poll shows that Fant’s presence on the ballot as an independent candidate actually helps Congressman Kissell, even though both Kissell and Fant are Democrats.  The Republican primary in this district this year was very contentious, and the loser has said he will not support Harold Johnson, the Republican nominee.  It appears that if Fant is on the ballot, he attracts the votes of some conservatives who are displeased with the outcome of the Republican primary.

The Maryland State Board of Elections recently determined that the Independent Party is no longer ballot-qualified, because it has no officers.

The Independent Party became ballot-qualified in 2008.  It was formed by supporters of Ralph Nader for president.  Nader was an independent presidential candidate in 2008, but Maryland requires more than three times as many signatures for a statewide independent candidate, as for an entire new party.  So Nader took the pragmatic path and created the Independent Party, so as to decrease the number of signatures he needed.  The Independent Party did not have any candidates for office other than for President in 2008, nor since then.  Also, in 2009, the party didn’t file any campaign finance reports.

The State Board of Elections learned that the party’s treasurer had moved to Iowa, and that the party seemed to have no other state officers, so the Board declared the party to be no longer ballot-qualified.  Without the Board’s action, the party would probably have continued to be ballot-qualified indefinitely, because Maryland recognizes that a party remains ballot-qualified as long as it continues to have registration of at least 1% of the state total (the state also keeps parties on the ballot as long as they poll 1% of the vote for either Governor or President).  The Independent Party has registration of 1.05%, but now that the party is disqualified, the state is sending letters to all the party’s registered members, enclosing a new voter registration form and telling them that if they don’t choose another party, they will automatically be converted to independent voters.

On June 23, Delaware HB 425 passed the Senate Administration/Elections Committee.  The bill had already passed the House.  It reinstates the old, more lenient definition of “Political Party” for 2010 only.

Earlier this year, the legislature had passed a bill doubling the number of registrants that a party needs to be on the ballot, from about 300 members, to about 600.  HB 425 says that the new, tougher requirement should not be in force until 2011.