The California Secretary of State has informed the county clerks and registrars of voters that a new party political party is attempting to qualify for the 2012 Primary ballot. The counties now have 30 days to determine the percentage of valid signatures by verifying either 500 signatures OR three percent of the the total signatures filed, whichever is greater.
The group, called “Americans Elect” has filed more than 1,030,040 petitions with the counties. This is the number of valid petitions required to become ballot qualified. If all the submitted petitions are valid (which is unlikely), the party would immediately become a qualified political party. If the party is short of the full number of petitions, additional petitions can be submitted through January. The Secretary must determine that a party is qualified by January 22, 2012 in order to appear on the 2012 Primary ballot.
According to early numbers released by the Secretary of State, it appears that about 70-80% of the signatures submitted so far are valid.
