The Moderate Party of Rhode Island will have collected 30,000 signatures on its petition to become a qualified party by Monday, August 3. The law requires 23,589 signatures, so the party believes that in four days, it will have enough valid signatures.

If the party has qualified, this is the first time any political party, or any statewide independent candidate, has completed a petition of 5% of the last vote cast since 2000, when the Libertarian Party, and the Reform Party, each completed Oklahoma’s 5% petition. Also, this is the first time a party has qualified itself using a 5% statewide petition in a midterm year since the Libertarian Party completed such a petition in Nevada in 1978 (Nevada eliminated its 5% petition requirement in 1987).

On July 29, Texas U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said she will resign from the Senate in October or November 2009, in order to prepare to run for Governor in 2010. She had last been elected to the Senate in 2006.

Therefore, Texas will hold a special election for U.S. Senate on May 8, 2010. No petition is needed for special elections in Texas, so anyone who pays a filing fee can be on the May 2010 ballot, with a party label. If no one gets 50%, a run-off will be held on June 2.

A South Dakota state court will soon decide if a referendum has enough valid signatures. Proponents of the referendum submitted 25,400 signatures to meet a legal requirement of 16,776. However, approximately 2,000 signatures were notarized by notaries who wrote down an incorrect date for when their seal expires. If those signatures are considered invalid, the referendum will fail to qualify.

The purpose of the referendum is to ask for a popular vote on a ban on smoking in bars and casinos. The case is Trucano v Nelson, 32-civ 09-306, pending in the 6th district Circuit Court.