In 1967, Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama was on the move to run for President on a new party ticket. Second only to Alabama, California was the most important state in the Union in the eyes of the Wallace campaign. Wallace supporters greeted with enthusiasm the formation of the American Independent Party. Not only was California the most populous state, but it was also the jurisdiction with the earliest legal deadline by which ballot qualification had to be achieved for the 1968 presidential election. The procedures for qualification in California were extremely difficult. To qualify a new party for the ballot required either 66,059 voter registrations showing affiliation with the new party, or a petition with over 660,000 valid voter signatures. Deadline for securing the registrations was January 2, 1968.Securing registrations was much more difficult than securing signatures on a petition. In 1967, California had no registration by mail system. And, every registration form had to be executed in the presence of a person designated by county election officials as a deputy registrar of voters. By mid 1967, in spite of the best endeavors of American Independent Party coordinators, the pace of registration acquisition did not appear to be adequate to achieve ballot qualification by the January, 1968 deadline. In October, to bolster the effort, Governor Wallace came to California for a week of rallies and speaking engagements. Simultaneously with the Governor's appearances in California, the Wallace Campaign unleashed an all-out effort to qualify the American Independent Party for the California ballot. Registration headquarters--ultimately 46 in number--were opened in every major population center in the state. An advertising campaign was launched in support of the registration drive, including radio, television, and newspaper advertisements.
http://www.aipca.org/history.html
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