On April 15, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office said that the Green Party’s petition to be a recognized party is valid. The Green Party has had two party petitions validated in the last two weeks, in Arizona and Hawaii. Also, its Tennessee petition to place its gubernatorial candidate on the ballot as an independent was validated earlier this month. Therefore, the party has now qualified either itself, or its candidates, for the November 2010 ballot for statewide office in 20 states.

At this time exactly four years ago, the Green Party also enjoyed that status in 20 states.

Recently, a Utah group that circulated an initiative petition filed a federal lawsuit, to keep the names and addresses of the signers from being made public. This is the same issue that the U.S. Supreme Court will be grappling with on April 28 in Doe v Reed. See this news story about the Utah lawsuit, which had a hearing on April 14 before U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups, a Bush, Jr. appointee.

The case is Utahns for Ethical Government v Barton, 2:10-cv-00333. The plaintiffs went to the trouble of suing and serving all 29 county clerks in Utah. The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. on April 15. Utahns for Ethical Government’s initiative is strongly opposed by the Utah Republican Party, and the lawsuit charges that many people who signed the initiative fear retribution if the list of names and addresses is made public.

Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist whose work appears in 200 newspapers. Her most recent column focuses on the fact that independent candidates for Governor this year are doing very well in the polls in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.