The last time the Whig Party appeared on the ballot in any state was in Alabama in 1974, when its nominee John Watts ran for Lieutenant Governor. Watts and the Whig Party had also appeared on the Alabama ballot in 1970, when Watts ran for Governor.

But in 2009, it appears likely that a Whig Party candidate for New Jersey legislature will qualify. And in Florida, the ballot-qualified Florida Whig Party is already campaigning for its nominee in 2010 for U.S. House, 2nd district (Tallahassee area). He is Paul McKain. For more about the platform of the Florida Whig Party, see http://floridawhig.com. The party has been ballot-qualified since January 2007, but has never before run any candidates.

Although some news reports said that the Whig Party ran a candidate for Constable in Alabama in 2008, that candidate actually ran as a Democrat.

Two leading blogs that cover minor parties just had their one-year anniversaries. Independent Political Report had its first post on May 20, 2008, and Green Party Watch had its first post on May 21, 2008.

Before those blogs existed, Third Party Watch covered minor party and independent candidate news. Third Party Watch was founded by Austin Cassidy. After some years, Stephen Gordon bought the site. Then, he sold it to Richard Viguerie, who seemed to lose interest in it, and it is now dormant.

The U.S. Supreme Court has put NAACP v Billups, 08-1231, on its conference of June 4. The Court will probably decide on that day whether to hear the case, which concerns Georgia’s requirement that voters at the polls show a government photo-ID in order to vote.

One of the interesting complications of the case is Georgia’s new law that says no one may register to vote without presenting documents proving citizenship. Georgia virtually denies voting rights to people who don’t have a birth certificate (or, if born outside the U.S., if they can’t produce their naturalization certificate or some proof that their parents were U.S. citizens).