From Ballot Access News   February 4, 2013 Ninth Circuit Oral Argument in California Case on Discriminatory Ballot Labels On February 13, the Ninth Circuit will hear Chamness v Maldonado, 11-56303, in Pasadena, California. This is the lawsuit that challenges California’s ban on the ballot label “independent” in elections for Congress and partisan state office. [...]

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No story here. I just loved this image. Reminds me of an old campaign commercial (below). And here’s that video.

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My article on 3rd party politics is now up 1972; if there are veterans of the AIP/American Party, Schmitz campaign, or even other minor parties from around that time, I’d appreciate hearing from you. ~Peter Gemma petergemma@mac.com www.peterbgemma.com

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I am writing an article about third parties, specifically their position and impact on US-Middle East issues. I am up to 1968 and need some input: if you were involved in the Wallace campaign or are a veteran of the American Independent Party/American Party, I’d like to pose a few questions via e-mail. Thanks in [...]

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Excerpt from Ballot Access News: Vermont write-ins will only be known if any person goes to Montpelier and looks at the returns sent in by each of the towns. The Vermont Elections Director says she will then put the write-in totals on official stationery and the books that publish the national vote totals will accept [...]

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From the December 2012 Ballot Access News: 2012 PRESIDENTIAL VOTE (updated 1/1/13) ~ Obama Romney Johnson Stein Goode Barr Anderson Hoefling P.S.L Alabama 795,696 1,254,925 12,328 3,397 2,981 5 8 ? ? Alaska 122,640 164,676 7,392 2,917 ? ? ? ? ? Arizona 1,025,232 1,233,654 32,100 7,816 289 ? 119 ? ? Arkansas 394,409 647,744 [...]

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It’s widely recognized that many if not most people who vote Democrat are far from delighted with their party’s leaders, and only support them in order to keep Republicans from getting in who they fear would be even worse. Similarly, the average grassroots Republican voter is not particularly happy with the GOP’s leadership, but fear [...]

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From the December 2012 Ballot Access News: OCTOBER 2012 REGISTRATION TOTALS (updated 1/1/13) ~ Dem. Rep. Indp, misc Lib’t. Green Consti. Reform Am. Elect other Alaska 73,468 137,666 268,797 7,719 2,007 80 ? ? 16,964 Arizona 952,931 1,120,992 1,023,603 22,086 4,863 ? ? 237 – - Calif. 7,966,422 5,356,608 4,138,251 108,736 115,034 260 17,937 3,313 [...]

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There was an exchange of comments a couple days ago, where IPR reader Jake Witmer recommended some books on drug prohibition to reader Hugh Yonn. It was found in Steve Kubby:Regulating Cannabis is Unconstitutional, Unworkable and Racist, and is comment 145. He consented to having his comment start a suggested reading list for 2013. Here [...]

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Richard Winger writes in IPR comments on a previous post: Some comments in this thread have concerned running candidates in 2014 that may result in our being on the ballot automatically in 2016. But I haven’t noticed any comment above about the more fruitful idea of asking state legislators to introduce bills in the 2013 [...]

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For those unfamiliar with third parties in NY, there is a serious corruption problem. Due to “fusion voting” (where a candidates votes on multiple lines are added together) major parties often attempt to take over third parties so they can control the line and get additional votes. Here’s an example where this abuse came out [...]

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Richard Winger at Ballot Access News reports that Michigan has released the write-in vote totals cast for President in November 2012: “Gary Johnson was credited with 7,774 write-ins, the highest number of write-ins ever recorded in Michigan for a presidential candidate in November. The previous record had been Ralph Nader in 1996, who was credited [...]

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