Voters will have a chance to cast their ballot for an alternative third party presidential candidate to be selected by a nonpartisan organization this November, after supporters collected nearly double the amount of signatures needed to get a candidate on the ballot.
Americans Elect, a national nonpartisan organization founded for the purpose of adding alternative candidates to the 2012 presidential election ballot, turned over 17,666 signatures to the Government Accountability Board’s office Wednesday morning.
Gary Filipp, Americans Elect University of Wisconsin campus leader, who turned in the signatures, said the group was formed so people usually left out of the nominating process could participate in deciding who becomes America’s president.
“Americans Elect is unique in that any American can be a member,” Filipp said. “[This is] as opposed to a party system where only members of the party or those who donate can vote; all you have to be is a registered voter.”
Americans Elect spokesperson Allison Grant said unlike other major parties’ nomination processes, Americans Elect has three separate rounds of voting to decide the candidate who will be on the ticket.
She said the first round happens in May, which will narrow down the candidates. After this, there will be six candidates in June’s third nomination round, with the final candidate being decided after that.
Grant added the final six candidates have to declare a vice presidential candidate during the third round, and the candidate will have to be of a different party than themselves.
The organization’s website said Americans Elect is planning to put the first directly elected nonpartisan candidate on the 2012 ballot in all 50 states and has collected over 2.4 million signatures so far.
A statement from the organization said Wisconsin will be the 19th state so far to have the Americans Elect nominee on the state’s 2012 presidential ballot. Certification is pending in five other states, and efforts similar to Filipp’s are being pursued in 19 other states.
He said the difficulty of getting on the ballot varies significantly from state to state.
“Each state is very different because each has their own rules for who can be on the ballot,” Filipp said. “Most of that is because the Legislature can affect who has ballot access and what signatures are required. There’s also a lot of different timelines involved.”
As of Wednesday, the top declared candidates include former Republican Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer and Salt Lake City Mayor and Justice Party member Rocky Anderson. The top non-declared candidates include Texan Republican Rep. Ron Paul, former Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Ron Paul has the highest amount of supporters at this point,” Grant said. “But we encourage anyone to participate in the process because at the end of the day it is up to the registered voters to decide.”
