1,792 votes cast, Jill Stein received 1,223 of them, or 68%. Roseanne Barr, who had just entered the race in the last week, picked up 526 votes, or 29%. There were 35 votes for Kent Mesplay, and 8 votes for Harley Mikkelson

GPW reports that Roseanne Barr is very active on Twitter, and had tweeted a challenge to Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to have both herself and Jill Stein on their programs.

They also report that Jill Stein is actively fundraising, has hired at least 3 staff onto the campaign, and has campaigned so far in California, Colorado, Delaware, DC, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, and other additional states as well.

Jill Stein issued a short statement saying “It is great to have Roseanne Barr on the Green Party team. Let’s bring down the house!” Barr has similarly already made positive statements regarding Stein’s candidacy.

An email from the Stein campaign says that

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, begins a three day tour of Indiana and Ohio today with a visit to the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, accompanied by Cleveland City Councilman and Green Party elected official Brian Cummins and County Executive candidate David Ellison.

Saturday at 11:30am, Dr. Stein addresses the Green Party of Ohio Presidential Nominating Convention in Columbus.

This Sunday, as part of Indianapolis’ Occupy the Super Bowl protests, she rallies with supporters at the state capitol against anti-labor legislation such as “Right to Work for Less.”

The full itinerary of public events is viewable here: http://www.jillstein.org/events

Dr. Stein is especially interested in the Evergreen Cooperatives for providing one successful model, among many, for how economic democracy can provide employment and prosperity for stressed communities. In her recent People’s State of the Union address, Dr. Stein called for a Green New Deal providing for full employment and an immediate transition to a sustainable, more democratic economy. The Evergreen Cooperatives “are pioneering innovative models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability,” and are, “employee-owned, for-profit companies are based locally and hire locally.”

On Occupy Super Bowl Sunday, at noon, Dr. Stein will rally with supporters and other labor movement advocates at the Indiana statehouse in Indianapolis. Dr. Stein is not only strongly opposed to so-called Right-to-Work legislation (RTW), her Green New Deal includes a “program of immediate creation of 25 million, publicly useful, sustainable, well-paying jobs,” according to a prepared statement. Stein will be joined at the rally by lifelong labor organizer Anthony Prince, and student activist Erika Wolf, both newly hired members of the Jill Stein for President campaign staff.

The Green Party has put out a press release welcoming Stein and Barr to the presidential race:

The Green Party of the United States welcomes two candidates into the race for the 2012 Green presidential nomination, Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr. Ms. Barr and Dr. Stein submitted paperwork to meet the Green Party’s requirements as of the evening of the Feb. 1 deadline.

“We are thrilled to have two strong women running for President as Greens,” said Darryl Moch, national co-chair of the Green Party. “We look forward to a race based on Green ideas and values, and to showing the Democrats and Republicans how to run without the corrupting influence of fat corporate campaign checks and corporate-funded attack ads.”

“Anyone hopeful about the Occupy Wall Street’s challenge to the status quo or disappointed by the Obama Administration’s broken promises of change now has a pair of candidates to watch. Anyone bored or irritated with the Mitt Versus Newt Show by now will be relieved by the breath of fresh air — maybe a Green gale force of righteousness — that’s about to come,” said Tamar Yager, also a national co-chair of the Green Party.

For more information about the candidates, visit the following sites:

Jill Stein: http://www.jillstein.org

Roseanne Barr: http://www.roseanneforpresident.com

2012 Press Information for Green Candidates http://www.gp.org/candidates/index.php

The nominee will be chosen at the Green Party’s national convention, July 12-15, in Baltimore, Maryland (http://www.gpconvention2012.com)

State Green Parties in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and possibly Ohio are participating in primary elections. Other state Green Parties will choose the nominee they support and apportion delegates during statewide Green conventions. The Green Party currently has ballot access in 17 states. Greens expect to have the presidential nominee and other candidates on the ballot in at least 46 states and the District of Columbia on Election Day 2012.

Past Green Party convention sites and nominees:

2000: Denver, Colorado; Ralph Nader

2004: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; David Cobb

2008: Chicago, Illinois; Cynthia McKinney

“We consider it important to have strong women candidates at a time when women’s reproductive rights are under assult, from the Obama Administration’s decision on the morning-after pill to the Komen Foundation’s withdrawal of funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood. We’re proud that our presidential nominee in 2008 was a woman,” said Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the Green Party’s International Committee.

132 Greens hold public office in the United States, including five mayors. The largest city with a Green mayor is Richmond, California, with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. The Green Party and its candidates accept no money from corporate PACs.

Many Green candidates are promoting the “Green New Deal” in their campaigns (http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal). Greens have been active participants in the Occupy Movement; both Ms. Barr and Dr. Stein have appeared and spoken publicly at Occupy rallies.

Ballot Access News reports that the Associated Press has this story about Roseanne Barr’s announcement that she is seeking the Green Party presidential nomination; here is a Los Angeles Times story about Barr’s candidacy.

Kent Mesplay was featured in the Bloomington Alternative (H/T Green Party Watch).

This article at Green Party Watch has biographical information about four candidates (Stein, Barr, Mesplay and Mikkelson).

Green Party Watch also reports that Cindy Sheehan wrote

In the last election, I supported the Green Party candidate, Cynthia McKinney and her running mate, Rosa Clemente. Unfortunately, the Party is not entirely functional (which party is?), even if many of us do support its 10 Key Principles.
I have also been impressed by the other woman seeking the nomination, Jill Stein–she is bright, articulate, well-informed, truly progressive and dedicated to public service–but if push came to shove, I would support Roseanne.

Barr was a supporter of Sheehan in her race for Congress.

Last night, Ballot Access News appealed for donations and/or pledges to COFOE (the Coalition for Free & Open Elections) for the purpose of making it possible for the Vermont ballot access lawsuit to go forward. In only 12 hours, $615 has been pledged. No money that has been pledged will necessarily be donated unless the goal of $2,000 has been met. Please consider e-mailing richardwinger@yahoo.com with a pledge. Small amounts do help.

Click here to read Ballot Access News comments on this article

Related Articles:

November 11, 2011: COFOE Hopes to Help Vermont Independent Candidate Lawsuit, but Needs Funds
July 26, 2011: Lower Vermont State Court Upholds June Petition Deadline
July 15, 2011: Burlington Free Press Article Describes Court Hearing on Vermont June Petition Deadline
July 13, 2011: Burlington Free Press Mentions Trial on June Petition Deadline

“Duopoly: How the Republicrats Control the Electoral Process” is Valuable Tool for Ballot Access Activists

Darryl W. Perry has recently published a book “Duopoly: How the Republicrats Control the Electoral Process”, which is available on Amazon. Normally this blog doesn’t carry book reviews, although the printed Ballot Access does. However, “Duopoly” is too useful not to be publicized in both places.

The book has five appendices, each containing valuable statistical data that is not easy to find elsewhere. Appendix One is especially useful. It is titled, “Congressional Re-election Rates for U.S. House of Representatives”. It covers the entire period 1789 to the present. It shows, for each regularly-scheduled election, the number of seats, the number of open seats, the number of members seeking re-election, the number being re-elected, and then shows percentages for each of the last two categories. At a glance, once can see that re-election rates have increased in the modern era, relative to the past when elections were less regulated. In 1874, only 58.3% of the incumbents who were running for re-election were re-elected. Other years in which re-election rates were below 70% were 1842, 1854, 1862, 1890, 1894, and 1932. By comparison, starting in 1950, there has never been an election with that percentage being lower than 85%.

The book also has re-election rates for the Canadian House of Commons, 1869 to the present, showing Canadian elections are much more likely to result in a high turnover. Canada has equal and tolerant ballot access laws for all candidates, unlike the U.S.

There is much, much more that is useful in this book, and a future paper edition of B.A.N. will review the book in more detail.

The Wisconsin legislature is currently considering SB 116, a bill with the major purpose of moving the primary (for office other than President) from the first Tuesday in September to the first Tuesday in August. Unfortunately, the bill also moves the petition deadline for a new party from June 1 to April 1. And the bill does not relax the current requirement that makes it illegal to circulate this petition in an odd year. Therefore, if the bill passes in its current form, the petition for circulating this petition would shrink from five months to three months. Furthermore, that petitioning period would be almost entirely in winter, when weather can inhibit petitioning.

The bill has passed the Senate, but has been amended in the Assembly. The Assembly will probably pass it next week and then it returns to the Senate for another vote.

Selected comments from Ballot Access News on this article:

Andy: Wow, so this means that all of the petition signature gathering would have to be done in freezing cold weather between January 1st and April 1st, and it gets really freaking cold in Wisconsin. This is an obvious attempt to make it more difficult to get on the ballot in Wisconsin.

How about this? Since these Wisconsin legislators are so eager for people to conduct petition drives during freezing cold weather, how about make the legislature have their legislative sessions outside in the cold during the same time period?

Richard Winger: I have e-mailed the Wisconsin Election Board about the flaw in SB 116 (the name of the Wisconsin Elections Board is a weird name that is actually the Government Accountability Board). I don’t know if they will pay any attention.

If anyone reading this lives in Wisconsin, I hope he or she will contact a state legislator.

At Ballot Access News:

Americans Elect Web Page Posts New National Ballot Access Petition Count

The Americans Elect web page now says the group has obtained 1,903,444 signatures on petitions to get on the ballot, so far. This contrasts with the figure of three weeks ago, which was 1,829,264.

Elliot Ackerman, A Leader of Americans Elect, Publishes Criticism of Electoral College

Elliot Ackerman, Chief Operating Officer for Americans Elect, has this Huffington Post piece, criticizing the Electoral College. The piece also criticizes the presidential primary process used by the two major parties.

Doyle McManus Op-Ed on Americans Elect in Los Angeles Times

Doyle McManus has this fairly lengthy op-ed about Americans Elect in the Los Angeles Times. Although there is not a great deal of new information in the piece, it does have a more expanded list of potential presidential candidates that Americans Elect might possibly nominate. Also, at the end, it suggests that Americans Elect might very well jump into congressional races in 2014.

Americans Elect Kicks Off Publicity Campaign

Americans Elect has announced a series of press conferences around the nation, to increase its own visibility, and to make its nomination process clearer to the public. The first event is at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on November 2. Four more events in November are at these locations: (1) Harvard University, Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School, on November 7; (2) University of Denver on November 10; (3) University of Southern California’s Unruh School of Politics on November 16; (4) Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) on November 28.

Americans Elect Submits Party Petition in Utah

On October 24, Americans Elect submitted its party petition to Utah elections officials. See this story. Utah requires 2,000 valid signatures, and Americans Elect turned in approximately 4,000.

At Irregular Times:

Americans Elect Names 10 New Leaders, Drawing Heavily Again from Financial Sector

Guest Post: Americans Elect: The ‘Little Big Man’ of Astroturf? (see comment thread)

Americans Elect Orlando and Occupy Orlando: an Updated Comparison between “Grassroots” and Grassroots

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The Ohio Secretary of State is pondering whether to put Americans Elect on the ballot.

The September 2011 Ballot Access News lists Americans Elect as having already qualified in Alaska and Arizona, finished petitioning in California, Unsettled in Florida (since then settled in favor of Americans Elect), finished petitioning in Hawaii, already on in Kansas and Michigan, finished petitioning in Missouri, already on in Nevada, and above the legal requirement and working on padding in Utah (in a telephone conversation, Richard Winger says he believes they have since then finished Utah). Idaho is shown with an asterisk, which usually means either that petitioning has started but no signatures have been reported yet, or that the legal period for collecting signatures has started but the drive itself hasn’t.

It is possible that Americans Elect could pass the Green and Constitution parties in number of states with ballot access for 2012 by the end of 2011.

Voters can now register to vote as Americans Elect in Kansas and will soon have that option in California and Nevada.

Ballot Access News also reports that

Americans Elect does not wish to participate in any government-sponsored presidential primaries, because it has its own national on-line presidential primary. However, chances are it would be eligible for government presidential primaries in Arizona, California, Delaware, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah, and possibly a few other states, if it wished.

and

Americans Elect’s webpage regularly updates the number of signatures that have been collected on ballot access petitions. The current total, posted early this week, is 1,844,938, which is higher by 15,674 signatures than the total posted two weeks ago.

and

By mid-October of 1995, the Reform Party had only begun ballot access petitioning or registration activity in California, so Americans Elect is ahead of the Reform Party, for this point in the cycle. However, the Reform Party had the advantage that it would soon be recognized in Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Virginia, without having to petition, based on already-qualified state parties in those four states that were about to affiliate with the national Reform Party.

The same article notes that Americans Elect submitted 1,621,627 signatures in California.

Meanwhile, at Irregular Times:

Americans Elect Drops November 6 Activation Date from its Briefing Book

It’s unclear whether this change reflects a delay in Americans Elect’s schedule to roll out its candidate and draft campaign capabilities, or an intention by Americans Elect to introduce such capabilities earlier than previously scheduled.

Americans Elect wants you to know Americans are not really as Angry with Wall Street as you might Think

Americans Elect’s “leaders” include:

Chairman Peter Ackerman, Founder and Managing Partner, Rockport Capital

Jacqueline Adams, Senior Counselor, Burson-Marteller corporate public relations

David Albertson, agribusiness, venture capital and real estate investment

Gerald W. Blakeley Jr., President, Blakeley Investment Company

Arturo Brillembourg, President, Farmington Asset Management hedge fund

Hilda Ochoa Brillembourg, President and CEO, Strategic Investment Group hedge fund and private equity group

John H. Burbank III, Founder, Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Passport Capital hedge fund

W. Bowman Cutter, Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Policy Initiative, Roosevelt Institute and Managing Director, The Cedars Capital Partners

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO, E.L. Rothschild private investment firm

Les Francis, Principal/Senior Advisor, Washington Media Group corporate public relations firm

Carla Hills, Chairman & CEO, Hills & Company corporate advocacy firm on international trade

Roderick M. Hills, Principal, Hills & Company corporate advocacy firm on international trade and Partner, Hills, Stern & Morley, LLP private equity and investment law firm

Philip K. Howard, Partner, Covington & Burling corporate law firm, specializing in mergers and acquisitions

Dale E. Jones, Vice Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles executive search and corporate consulting firm

W. David Lawson IV, Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase & Co. Investment Bank

Lee Lowenstein, Managing Director, Lionstone Capital Management firm for private wealth investment

Rafael Mayer, Managing Partner, Khronos LLC hedge fund management firm

Mark McKinnon, Global Vice Chair, Hill and Knowlton Public Relations corporation

Morton H. Meyerson, Chairman, Alsbridge outsourcing corporation

Nancy E. Roman, President, G7 Group corporate political analysis firm

Kirk T. Rostron, Managing Partner, The Mount Vernon Group private investment firm

Americans Elect Leader Douglas Schoen Uses Dubious Poll to Label Pro-Reform (Occupy Wall Street -p) Protest as Dangerous, Out of Touch, Radical, Extremist and even Violent

Americans Elect Pollster takes to Media and Praises Herman Cain, Violating Neutrality Policy in Bylaws

How to use the Americans Elect Rules to Eject the Americans Elect Corporate Board (?)

Grassroots vs. “Grassroots”: Americans Elect Orlando and Occupy Orlando

Confirmed: While Douglas Schoen Adopted Pose of Discovering Americans Elect, he was Working for It

Americans Elect posts Draft Rules and Candidate Handbook

“Getting Involved”: Americans Elect vs. the October 2011 DC Occupation

2nd Mystery Reference to Rules Americans Elect has not Publicly Released

Americans Elect Field Director Fibs about Candidate Censoring Committee on Public Radio

Older Stories

On October 7, the very last day for an appeal to be filed in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, the Ohio legislature filed papers to intervene in the case, and to appeal to the 6th circuit. The Secretary of State doesn’t want to appeal, but the legislature does. First the legislature will need to persuade the court to let it intervene. If the legislature is permitted to appeal, then it will ask the 6th circuit to overturn the U.S. District Court order of September 7 that put the party on the 2012 ballot.

The legislature’s action is especially surprising, given that the law passed by the legislature in 2011, HB 194, is now suspended. With HB 194 not in effect, and with the primary set for March instead of May, the statutory deadline for new parties to submit a petition to be on the ballot in 2012 is November 2011, the very same deadline held unconstitutional in 2006 by the 6th circuit. Even if HB 194 weren’t suspended, the deadline would be in December 2011, almost as bad. Furthermore, due process would seem to provide that even if December 2011 were constitutional on its face, such a deadline can’t be imposed on such short notice.

HB 194 is suspended because a referendum petition was recently filed. When new laws are subject to a referendum, they can’t go into effect until the voters vote on the new law. Assuming the referendum petition has enough valid signatures, that vote on HB 194 would be in November 2012.

Followup post:

As noted earlier, on October 7, the Ohio legislature asked to intervene in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, the ballot access case. Here is the state legislature’s brief, asking the U.S. District Court to let it intervene so that it may appeal the Libertarian Party’s September 7 victory. The legislature says it wants to intervene because the Secretary of State is not appealing.

Here is the Libertarian Party’s response, filed on October 8. The party argues that the U.S. District Court should not permit the legislature to intervene, mostly because the legislature waited an entire month after the party won injunctive relief. As the party’s brief notes, the Ohio Secretary of State had told the press on September 8 that he was not appealing. The party says it wouldn’t be fair to let the legislature intervene now, because the deadline for individual Libertarians to petition onto the Libertarian primary ballot is December 7, 2011. Anyone running in the Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate, or for President, needs 1,000 signatures. Presidential primary candidates cannot begin to petition until they have chosen a slate of delegates.

Latest updates on Americans Elect

At Ballot Access News:

Portland, Oregon TV Station News Clip About Americans Elect

Editorial Page Editor of Tallahassee Democrat Newspaper on Americans Elect

Stanley Greenberg on Independent Voters and on Chances of a Strong Third Force in 2012 Presidential Race

Dan Morain Article on Americans Elect Carries More Detail than Most Such Articles

Fox News Airs Five-Minute Interview with Elliot Ackerman, Spokesman for Americans Elect

At Irregular Times:

Chairs of Americans Elect Rules Committee: A Coal/Casino GOP Lobbyist and a Lieberman Democrat

Americans Elect Spins Clear Trends on Economy and the Budget into Third Way Centrism

Americans Elect Corporation names itself a Grassroots Movement, embraces “Moderate” Ideological Label

Americans Elect Picks Core Questions for 2012 without Member Input

Asked Point Blank, Americans Elect Refuses to Disclose $$$ from Billionaire Peter Ackerman

Ron Paul fans and GOPsters Flood Americans Elect Facebook Page

Our Oregon Sums Up Current Knowledge on Americans Elect

Democracy21 asks IRS to Investigate Americans Elect for Corporate Code Violations

At ThirdPartyPolitics.US:

Latest Americans Elect News

Americans Elect: Are the Presidential Debates Answering Your Questions?

Americans Elect: Press Release: While Republicans Offer More of the Same, Americans Elect Delegates Are Shaping the Debate for the Nation

Americans Elect: Strengthen Your Voice by Spreading the Word About Americans Elect

Americans Elect: AE Delegates See Third Way on Budget Deficit

Press Release: Americans Elect Launches Nationwide Grassroots Network Project 500

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Read the rest of the article, with comments, here.

On June 21, a Maryland judge ruled that the Libertarian Party had submitted enough petition signatures to gain ballot access in Maryland. The state Board of Elections had previously determined that there were not enough signatures. The main issue was whether to count voters who wrote a printed name that did not perfectly match their voter registration.

Read the original article in the Baltimore Sun.

On March 17, the Massachusetts Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an extension of time in which to file a cert petition in Barr v Galvin. Such extensions of time are fairly easy to obtain. Barr v Galvin is the Massachusetts case over whether unqualified parties have a right to use stand-in presidential candidates on their ballot access petitions, given that qualified parties have the right to change their presidential and vice-presidential nominees. For example, in July 1972, the Democratic Party certified Thomas Eagleton as its vice-presidential nominee to election officials in all states, but the following month, the party substituted R. Sargent Shriver.

Also on March 17, The Massachusetts Libertarian Party asked the U.S. District Court who had originally handled the case to certify the question (to a state court) of whether Massachusetts election law already permits presidential stand-ins. Originally, the U.S. District Court had ruled in favor of the party, and had ruled that the apparent ban on presidential stand-ins for unqualified parties violates the Constitution. Later, the First Circuit had reversed the U.S. District Court on the constitutional issue, but had suggested that perhaps the state courts should interpret whether the law really bans stand-ins or not. The law is not clear.

The Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee will hear SB 935 on Tuesday, March 15, at 10:30 a.m., in room 12. SB 935 makes some very small improvements in the law on how groups qualify as political parties in Tennessee. The bill improves the filing deadline for new party petitions slightly. Existing law seems to require the petition to be filed in March (although the law is vague). The bill changes the deadline to the first Thursday in April. An identical bill in the House, HB 794, hasn’t been given a hearing date yet.

Besides improving the deadline slightly, the bill also liberalizes the law by providing that the petition to qualify a new party no longer must say that the signers are members. And the bill would provide that newly-qualifying parties would not need to set up primary election boards.

However, parties would still need a petition signed by 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. They would still nominate by primary. Candidates in the new party’s primary would need to submit their petitions to run in the primary of that new party on the first Thursday in April, before they knew if their own party’s petition would be sufficient. The bill says that candidates who file to run in a new party’s primary would be put on the November ballot as independents if it turns out that their own party’s petition doesn’t contain enough valid signatures.

This bill only exists because last year a U.S. District Court struck down the Tennessee procedure for a party to get on the ballot. SB 935, if signed into law, would probably still be unconstitutional. The Tennessee primary (for office other than president) is in early August, so SB 935 would still require a very difficult petition, to be submitted four months before the primary. One of the main reasons the old law was declared unconstitutional was that the 6th circuit had invalidated the Ohio procedure for new parties, and Tennessee is bound by the Ohio decision, because both states are in the 6th circuit. The Ohio petition for a new party, which was held unconstitutional, was four months before the primary, and required a petition of 1% of the last vote cast. If the 6th circuit thought a 1% petition, due four months before a primary, was unconstitutional, it seems likely that SB 935 would be unconstitutional.

Another bill in Tennessee, SB 617, which is far better, has not been given a hearing date. This is probably because it doesn’t have a companion bill in the House.

The Arkansas Libertarian Party will launch a petition drive in April to qualify for the 2012 ballot as a full-fledged party. The party has virtually met its goal of raising $30,000 to pay for the petition drive, which needs 10,000 valid signatures, to be collected in any three months of the party’s own choosing.

Arkansas is the only state in which the Libertarian Party has never placed any nominees on the ballot for partisan office other than President. Arkansas has far easier procedures for parties to get on the ballot for President only, and the party has always used the president-only procedures in the past.

The Green Party of Arkansas is currently in court against Arkansas, over the law on how a party retains its place on the ballot. The law requires all parties to poll 3% for the office at the top of the ballot (President in presidential years, Governor in gubernatorial years). The case is in the 8th circuit.

On March 11, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled 5-1 that the petition to put a new political party on the ballot, 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, does not violate the State Constitution. Here is the 17-page opinion, and the 9-page dissent. For 2012, the law requires 85,379 signatures. Except in California and Florida, there is no instance in U.S. history in which any political party, or independent candidate, has ever overcome a signature petition requirement that high.

The decision seems to assume, without any discussion, that the State Constitutional provision “All elections shall be free” (Article I, section 10) doesn’t give any more protection for ballot access than the U.S. Constitution does. Nor does the decision discuss the North Carolina Constitutional provision that says “Every qualified voter, except as in this Constitution disqualified, shall be eligible for election by the people to office.” The decision depends on the unfavorable ballot access decisions that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued over the last 40 years, not on decisions of the North Carolina Supreme Court that interpret the State Constitution.

The decision erroneously implies that many other states do not let primary voters sign a petition for a new party. The decision mentions an Ohio election law that refers to petitions to place a candidate on a party’s primary ballot, and says that Ohio is therefore a state in which only party members may sign a petition to place a party on the ballot. This is a factual error. The decision also mentions that California once wouldn’t let primary voters sign for an independent candidate, but that has nothing to do with petitions to create a new party; furthermore California abandoned that restriction in 1976. Texas is the only state in the nation that won’t let primary voters sign a new party’s petition. Thanks to Mike Munger for the link.