The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office has finished checking the petition of Ralph Nader’s Independent Party. The petition has enough valid signatures. The Secretary of State is still working on verifying the Constitution Party petition.

Nader chose to qualify a new party in New Mexico, rather than qualifying as an independent presidential candidate, because the number of signatures for a new party is only one-sixth as many signatures. By contrast, in 2004, he did the independent presidential petition.

On April 24, the New York State Court of Appeals (the highest state court in that state) heard one case involving an intra-party dispute in the Independence Party, and another one involving such a dispute in the Working Families Party.

The Independence Party case is called Conroy v State Committee of Independence Party. It concerns a state party rule that deprives New York City branches of the party the ability to decide whether to let candidates who are members of other parties enter the Independence Party primary. The motivation for the rule was that Lenora Fulani supporters control the New York City branches of the party, and the state officers are opposed to her and desire to limit her power in the party.

The Court of Appeals judges seemed intent on deciding the issue by figuring out what the New York state election law says about the issue, even though that is very difficult, since the law is not only unclear, but virtually contradictory. The mid-level court had split the difference, ruling that the local New York city party officials could enjoy authority over the 3 citywide offices, but not the district offices within the city.

The other case is called Master v Pohanka. The Working Families Party has a rule that the state officers of the party have jurisdiction over whether members of other parties may enter the Working Families Party primary. Some county officials of the party claim that the state party rule violates the election code, and desire more local control.

The April 23 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle has a story about confusion between the American Independent Party, and independent voters. The American Independent Party has been ballot-qualified since 1968, yet some Californians still think that if they wish to register as an Independent voter, they should choose the box for “American Independent Party.” The correct way for a California voter to register as an independent is to check the box labeled “Declines to State a Party.”

The publicity was engendered when Mayor Gavin Newsom’s fiancee registered into the American Independent Party. When this was noticed, the Mayor said his fiancee had intended to register as an independent. The American Independent Party is the California affiliate of the Constitution Party. The California Secretary of State says she will redesign the voter registration form to make it more obvious that the American Independent choice is a party. However, the logical solution, to change the designation for actual independents from “Declines to State a Party” to “Independent” cannot be implemented without a change in the election code. The legislature in the past has voted down bills to make this change. Apparently legislators don’t want the choice of “independent” to be listed on the voter registration form, because they believe it is too attractive.