The Arizona Green Party is petitioning to be on the 2010 ballot. It needs 20,449 signatures by March 2010, and already has 4,000 signatures.

An earlier post today, which has been removed, erroneously said the Arizona Green Party was doing a registration drive.

As far as is known, the Arizona and New Mexico Green Parties are the only state Green Parties that are petitioning now for the 2010 election. States in which the Green Party is not now on the ballot, and in which it could theoretically be petitioning for 2010 (even before it has chosen any candidates for 2010), are Alabama, Alaska (a registration drive), Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The party is in court against the ballot access laws of North Carolina and Tennessee. Theoretically the party could be petitioning in Oklahoma, but since the Oklahoma law is fairly likely to change soon, it would be foolish to be petitioning in Oklahoma now.

On April 29, Arkansas Green Party legislator Richard Carroll said he will change parties from “Green” to “Democratic” as soon as the legislature adjourns in a few days. See this AP story. Thanks to Sean Haugh for this news.

On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in NAMUDNO v Holder, 08-322. The issue is the constitutionality of section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires local and state governments in part of the nation to submit election law changes to the U.S. Justice Department, before those changes can go into effect. Here is the AP story about the oral argument. UPDATE: here is the transcript, on the U.S. Supreme Court’s webpage. Thanks to Rick Hasen for that.