On April 8, a potential independent candidate filed a federal lawsuit against the Montana ballot access law for independent candidates (for office other than president). Kelly v Johnson, cv 08-25. Steve Kelly would like to be an independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year. In 2007 the legislature moved the petition deadline from June to March. The same bill provided that independent candidates must also pay a large filing fee. Even under the old law (as well as the new law), a U.S. Senate independent candidate this year needs 9,992 valid signatures. The combination of the large number of signatures, the early filing deadline, and the fee, prompts the lawsuit. Oddly, ever since 1999, presidential independents, and new parties, only need a flat 5,000 signatures.

On April 7, Missouri SB 797 was sent to the House Elections Committee. It has already passed the Senate. It deletes the requirement that a petition for a new party must list that party’s presidential candidate, and its candidates for presidential elector. Therefore, in the future, if this bill passes, the party petition need not name candidates for any office at all; the party chooses its nominees after the petition has been circulated.

In the meantime, Missouri HB 1310, which moves the independent petition deadline from late July to March, has not advanced in the Senate Committee that hears election law bills, ever since it had a hearing on March 31.

The Illinois Green Party will have candidates for the U.S. House in 14 of the 19 districts this year. Some were nominated in the party’s primary in February, and others were nominated by party meetings. Because the Green Party is ballot-qualified, it is easy for the party to run candidates.

There are normally few minor party and independent candidates for the U.S. House in Illinois. Illinois requires petitions for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties, equal to 5% of the last vote cast. Comparing the states on how minor and new parties get on the ballot for U.S. House, Illinois has the second most difficult law in the U.S., after Georgia. For independents, however, North Carolina is also worse than Illinois.

The Green slate of 14 U.S. House candidates is the largest number any party (other than the Democratic and Republican Parties) has run in Illinois since 1924. Illinois has 19 districts. In 1924, when Illinois had 25 districts plus two at-large U.S. House members, there were 24 Socialist candidates.