No Independent Presidential Candidate Petitions Succeeded in Mississippi
September 11th, 2012This year is the first presidential election since 1964 in which no independent presidential candidate petitions succeeded in Mississippi. The state only requires 1,000 valid signatures, due in September. The only such petition submitted this year was for Jill Reed for President and Tom Cary for vice-president, but the petition lacked enough valid signatures. Reed lives in Casper, Wyoming and campaigns as the nominee of the Twelve Visions Party. She is on in Colorado but not in any other state.
Mississippi allows groups to become qualified political parties, simply by demonstrating that they have party officers in the state. Therefore, most of the nation’s nationally-organized political parties enjoy party status in Mississippi, and don’t need to use the independent petition procedure. Mississippi’s law on how parties get on the ballot was passed in 1890 and has never been amended. The law shows that, at least for small-population states, there is no need for restrictive ballot access laws for political party ballot access.
September 11th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Out of curiosity, how many ballot qualified parties are there in Mississippi? The Secretary of State’s webpage doesn’t seem to have a full list anywhere.
September 11th, 2012 at 8:49 am
#1 i’m not sure honestly but I believe the GOP, Dems, Reform Party, Green, Constitution, and Libertarians are all on. I’m not 100% certain on that though. Don’t know if any other parties like the Justice Party got on or not. i don’t think they did though.
September 11th, 2012 at 9:02 am
The Justice Party, and Americans Elect, are ballot-qualified parties in Mississippi. The Natural Law Party may also still be ballot-qualified. It was in 2008, when it tried to nominate Brian Moore for president but the paperwork was 10 minutes too late.
September 11th, 2012 at 9:08 am
Richard, Has the NLP nominated anyone this year in MS?
September 11th, 2012 at 9:24 am
#4, no. And the deadline for a qualified party to nominate someone for president was September 10 (yesterday).
September 11th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
There has been one change since 1890. Parties must now file by 5:00 PM!
September 11th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
#6, you’re right, although the definition of “qualified party” is a slightly different subject than the deadlines by which qualified parties must certify nominees.
September 11th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Samm Tittle tried but failed using the petitions she tried to make it on the primary ballot with, also surprised the Americans 3rd position didnt make it
September 12th, 2012 at 6:42 am
“also surprised the Americans 3rd position didnt make it”
Too many of their supporters had a problem spelling their name, had disqualifying felonies, been judged mentally incompetent in a court of law, and/or did not know their 9-1-1 address. “Under a rock” is generally not accepted as a valid address by registrars.
September 14th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
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