Georgia Statewide Petitioning Window Opens

Posted on by April 10, 2007
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Parties that wish to appear on the Georgia statewide ballot in 2008 are permitted to start circulating their statewide petition, effective April 8, 2007. The law permits the statewide party petition to circulate during the 15 months prior to the deadline. The petition requires 44,089 signatures. A trap for unsuspecting parties is the Georgia law regarding notary publics. Georgia petitions must be notarized. If a notary himself or herself circulates the petition (even a single sheet), then all of that individual’s notarization work is invalid. This trap was responsible for the failure of the Constitution Party’s 1996 Georgia statewide petition, and also for that year’s Natural Law Party petition. Each of them did the difficult work of collecting almost 50,000 raw signatures, only to have all that work wasted, because in each case a Notary Public who signed off on a large share of the signatures had himself or herself also circulated a few sheets.

The Libertarian Party is already on the statewide Georgia ballot. The Georgia Green Party is about to hold a state convention, which will serve as a kickoff for its own petition. The statewide petition need not carry the names of any candidates; it is simply a petition to qualify the party for statewide ballot status.

Gallup Poll on Republican Presidential Contest

Posted on by April 10, 2007
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As noted in an April 8 post, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, MSNBC, and The Politico, are jointly sponsoring a debate on May 3 among nine Republican candidates for president. On April 10, Gallup/USA Today released a poll, showing these results for those nine invited candidates: Rudy Giuliani 38%, John McCain 16%, Mitt Romney 6%, Tommy Thompson 2%, Ron Paul 2%, Mike Huckabee 1%, Sam Brownback 1%, Duncan Hunter 1%, Jim Gilmore 0%. Also, 25% chose candidates who have not announced and 8% had no preference. It is significant that the sponsors of this major debate are willing to invite candidates who are only at 1% or less. Obviously, standards are very different for general election presidential debates; the Commission on Presidential Debates excludes those who poll under 15% in those debates.

Greens, Libertarians, Elected to Local Office on April 3

Posted on by April 10, 2007
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On April 3, some members of the Green and Libertarian Parties were elected or re-elected to local non-partisan offices. Four Greens were elected or re-elected to the Madison, Wisconsin common council. Also in Wisconsin, one Green was elected to the common council in each of three other cities: Oshkosh, Stevens Point, and Racine.

In Kansas, Libertarians were elected to the Salina Board of Education and to the Allen County Community College Board.

In Missouri, Libertarians were elected to the Springfield city council, the Jackson County Water Board, and the Board of Aldermen in Macks Creek.

Ontario to Vote on Proportional Representation

Posted on by April 10, 2007
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On April 1, the Ontario Provincial Citizens Assembly chose the Mixed Member Proportional Voting System, for future Ontario provincial elections. The voters will vote on this system on October 10, 1997.

Under the Mixed Member Proportional system, Ontario would have a 129-seat legislature with 90 district seats and 39 at-large (list) seats. Voters would cast two votes, one for a preferred party and one for a preferred local candidate. If a party deserves more seats than those won in districts, it would receive additional at-large seats. In advance of the election, the party would have nominated not only its district candidates, but its list of at-large candidates. If a party’s vote share is such that it deserves some at-large seats, the particular candidates elected to at-large seats would be taken from the party’s predetermined list of at-large candidates. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.