As noted in yesterday’s blog post, 13 states recently submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that Court to hear Arizona’s appeal in Brewer v Nader. The issues are whether out-of-staters can collect signatures in Arizona, and whether Arizona’s June 4 independent presidential petition deadline is unconstitutional.

If you live in one of the 13 states in which the Attorney General signed on to this amicus, you may wish to complaint to your state’s Attorney General. The 13 Attorneys General consist of these five Democrats: Mike McGrath of Montana (although he is is only in office for another week); Joseph Biden III of Delaware; Nancy Rogers of Ohio (although she is about to go out of office); Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma (who plans to run for Governor in 2010); and Bruce Salzburg of Wyoming.

The eight Republican Attorneys General are: Troy King of Alabama; Talis Colberg of Alaska; John Suthers of Colorado; Bill McCollum of Florida; Lawrence Wasden of Idaho; Mike Cox of Michigan; Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; and Larry Long of South Dakota.

You might mention that if every state had a June 4 petition deadline, in the past, the Republican Party could not have run any candidates in 1854. In 1854, the Republican Party was founded on July 6, and in the fall congressional elections, it won a plurality in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Also, Theodore Roosevelt didn’t declare his candidacy as the Progressive Party nominee in 1912 until August; and Robert La Follette didn’t declare his independent progressive candidacy until July 4, 1924. So, if all states had had a deadline like Arizona, all these important political developments would have been strangled.

On December 23, West Virginia released its write-in totals from last month’s election. None of the qualified write-in candidates for president in West Virginia were on the ballot in any state. Bob Barr was not on the ballot in West Virginia, but he didn’t have write-in status in that state because he filed his write-in declaration one day too late.

Although the Constitution Party was on the ballot for president, it was not on for Governor. However, its candidate for Governor, Butch Paugh, polled 234 write-ins. Thanks to Brandon Henderson for this news.

On December 17, Montana’s Attorney General asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Arizona’s appeal in Brewer v Nader, the case in which the 9th circuit struck down Arizona’s early June petition deadline for independent candidates, and also struck down Arizona’s ban on out-of-state circulators. Here is a copy of the brief. The brief was co-signed by Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

This amicus brief is 26 pages long, just as long as the brief Arizona itself filed. Like the Arizona brief, the amicus focuses most of its fire on the issue of out-of-state circulators. It is odd that Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and New Hampshire signed the amicus, because those four states don’t bar out-of-state petition circulators.

The brief cites the U.S. District Court decision in Oklahoma last year that upheld the ban on out-of-state circulators. Ironically, the 10th circuit reversed that decision the very day after the amicus was filed.