On March 19, North Carolina Senator Jim Jacumin (R-Connelly Springs) introduced SB 731. It lowers the petition for a previously unqualified party from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 10,000 signatures. It lowers the statewide independent petition from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 5,000 signatures. It lowers the district independent petitions from 4% of the number of registered voters, to 3%. The Constitution Party of North Carolina deserves the credit for getting this bill introduced.

The Alaskan Independence Party has decided not to ask for U.S. Supreme Court review in the case over whether the party can prevent a particular voter from running in its primary for public office. The case is called Alaskan Independence Party v State of Alaska, and the 9th circuit had denied the party’s request on October 22, 2008. The case had been filed to prevent Daniel DeNardo from running in its primaries, since he is very hostile to the party and had been suing it for slander.

The party may file a new case in Alaska State Court. The Alaska Constitution gives more Freedom of Association rights to political parties than the U.S. Constitution does. For example, the Alaskan Supreme Court a few years ago ruled that if several qualified political parties want to use a blanket primary ballot in cooperation with each other, the State Constitution protects their ability to do that, even though it contradicted state law. That is why Alaska is the only state that uses a blanket primary. Parties that have participated in the blanket primary have been the Democratic, Alaskan Independence, Libertarian and Green Parties. The Republican Party never wanted to be part of the blanket primary ballot, so it has its own primary ballot.

On March 21, Allan Stevo, independent candidate for U.S. House in Illinois last year, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his ballot access case, Stevo v Keith. The case number will be assigned soon.

Illinois requires independent candidates for U.S. House to submit exactly 5,000 valid signatures in years ended in “2”, but requires approximately twice as many signatures in all other election years. This policy has existed for 30 years, and in all that time, no independent candidate for U.S. House has qualified in Illinois, neither in years in which 5,000 signatures were required, nor in years in which approximately 10,000 were required. Stevo argues that there is no state interest in ever requiring more than 5,000 signatures for that office, in light of this historical record. The brief highlights the fact that the 7th circuit decision upholding the law did not mention the leading U.S. Supreme Court precedent on cases like this, Illinois State Board of Elections v Socialist Workers Party. That 1979 decision said that there is no interest in requiring a candidate for Mayor of Chicago to get approximately 50,000 signatures, when a candidate for Illinois statewide office only needed 25,000.