Frederic von Anholt says he will file paperwork on February 18 with the California Secretary of State, in preparation for for his independent candidacy for Governor. The petitioning period does not begin until April and runs through August. He will need 173,041 valid signatures, due August 6. See this story.

As noted earlier, if he qualifies, he will be California’s first independent candidate for Governor to have his name printed on a government-printed ballot. Although two gubernatorial candidates have used the California independent procedures in the past, neither was a true independent. Ed Clark was the Libertarian nominee in 1978, and he used the independent procedure because the Libertarian Party wasn’t on the ballot. Theodore Bell used the independent procedure in 1918, but he was the Democratic Party’s nominee. The 1918 Democratic Party primary had left the party with no nominee, so the party backed Bell and used the independent procedure. The problem the Democrats had in 1918 was that the man who won the Democratic nomination was a registered Republican, but he had also run in the Republican primary and had lost that primary. California law at the time permitted fusion, but someone who lost his own primary but won the primary of another party was excluded from the general election ballot.

On February 15, the brief was filed in Greene v Bartlett, U.S. District Court, western district. This is the case that challenges the North Carolina independent candidate ballot access procedures, for U.S. House. They are so severe, North Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House on any government-printed ballot. North Carolina has been using government-printed ballots since 1901.

This lawsuit was filed in 2008, but has been delayed until now.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Doe v Reed on April 28, 2010. This is the case from Washington state on whether signatures on petitions are private, or whether the state should be free to release the names and addresses to a group that wants to post the information on a web page.

The brief of the pro-privacy side is due on February 25. The state government’s brief is due on March 25. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Doe v Reed is the first U.S. Supreme Court ballot access case since 2008. The last ballot access case involved petitions to get on New York state major party primary ballots for the office of Delegate to party judicial nominating conventions. It was New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, and the court ruled that because the major parties want ballot access for their own primaries to be difficult for that office, that is their right.