On November 1, the Utah Libertarian Party submitted a petition to regain its place on the ballot. Assuming the petition is approved, Utah will then have 4 ballot-qualified parties. Already qualified are the Republican, Democratic and Constitution Parties. The Constitution Party had been the only minor party in Utah in 2006 that had polled enough votes to remain on without the need to re-petition.
Cynthia McKinney registered with the Federal Election Commission as a presidential candidate, back on October 22, 2007. The campaign address is in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks to Steve Rossignol for this news. Although McKinney had passively let the California Green Party, and the California Peace & Freedom Party, list her on their presidential primary ballots, she has not yet made a public announcement that she is running for president.
The Illinois legislature has extended the deadline to act on HB 1685, the National Popular Vote Plan, to November 30. This is the 13th time the legislature has extended the deadline in the last six months. All bills have deadlines to pass, since the legislature is in special session.
The faction of the Reform Party headed by Rodney Martin has set a national convention, December 17-19, 2007, in San Francisco. That convention will decide whether to nominate anyone for president. If the convention decides to nominate someone for president, then a special nominating convention sometime in 2008 will be planned.
The Libertarian Party national committee endorsed HR 3600 on November 2. This is Congressman Ron Paul’s bill to outlaw restrictive ballot access laws for U.S. House elections. The bill sets a ceiling of 1,000 signatures for candidates for the U.S. House. A similar bill has been introduced in 8 previous sessions of Congress. The sponsors have been Congressman John Conyers, former Congressman Tim Penny, and Paul himself.
