New Party Attempting to Qualify

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.

About Alex Vassar

A native of Panama, Alex Vassar has worked at the municipal and state levels of government for the past five years. Since 2004, Alex has been the Editor of JoinCalifornia.com, which includes the largest database of California election results. In 2007, he was selected to participate in the prestigious California Senate Fellows Program. Since 2009, Alex has worked for the State Senate Republican Caucus. He has written two books, including "The Legislators of California" (which won the 2011 Notable Document Award from the National Conference of State Legislatures). He is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Southern California.

To contact Alex Vassar, email: alex@onevoter.org