U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, will hear arguments in Arizona Green Party v Bennett on January 11, 2010, at 11:30 a.m., in Phoenix. The party is asking for a temporary restraining order to let it use out-of-state residents to help circulate its petition for party status. The party also asks for more time to complete the petition. The statutory deadline was moved from March 2010 to February 2010 by a bill that passed earlier this year. There are precedents that say that when a state moves a deadline to an earlier point, it cannot implement that earlier deadline in the middle of petitioning season, but should make the new deadline effective for the next election.

On November 16, U.S. District Court Judge J. Leon Holmes ruled against the state of Arkansas, in the lawsuit over whether a state can remove a party from the ballot just because it did poorly in the presidential race, even though it did better in other races. Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:09-cv-695.

Attorneys for Arkansas had argued that ballot access precedents make it clear that the law is constitutional, and therefore the case should be dismissed without a trial. But the judge cleared the way for a trial. The case was filed earlier this year by the Arkansas Green Party. It polled 20.47% for U.S. Senate in 2008, and elected a state legislator, but only got .32% for President in 2008. The ruling is seven pages. The case now proceeds to the evidence-gathering stage.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on how tough state laws can be, when they write an election law to determine whether a party should remain on the ballot. Arkansas requires a party to poll 3% for President in a presidential election year; if it doesn’t, it goes off the ballot.

Because Ohio has no valid law in place on how a group becomes a qualified party, and because no bill to create a valid law is close to passing, the Ohio Secretary of State will leave the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Socialist Parties on the ballot for the 2010 election. Those four parties were also on the ballot in Ohio in 2008.

However, because the Ohio Constitution requires all ballot-qualified parties to nominate by primary, these parties must choose their nominees in a primary in May 2010. Candidates running for public office in primaries need their own petitions. For qualified minor parties, statewide candidates need 500 signatures to get on their own party’s primary ballot. Candidates running for U.S. House or state legislature or partisan county office need 25 signatures. Those petitions are due on February 18, 2010. The requirement for a primary was waived in 2008 because the four parties put on the ballot did not get on the ballot (via court order) until after the March 2008 primary was over.

Although HB 260 has passed the House, it has made no headway in the Senate. That bill sets out petition requirements for parties to get on the ballot. If that bill had passed already, minor parties would need 10,057 signatures to get on the 2010 ballot. But, obviously, no one can expect any party to fulfill a requirement that doesn’t exist yet.