On August 9, someone challenged the statewide Green Party petition in Pennsylvania. The challenge was made only 90 minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline to file challenges. So far no one has challenged the statewide petitions of the Libertarian Party, or of the Tea Party.
The Green Party statewide petition only has a nominee for U.S. Senate. Pennsylvania Greens did not enter the race for Governor/Lieutenant Governor this year.
The challenge to the Green Party petition, although unfortunate, will make it extremely likely that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit Constitution Party v Cortes will be able to overturn the April 15 decision of a U.S. District Court that said the plaintiff political parties (including the Pennsylvania Green Party) don’t have standing to sue over the Pennsylvania challenge system. Also, if the 2010 challenge against the Green Party succeeds, and the Greens then launch a write-in candidate for their Senate nominee, Mel Packer, then the Green Party will also have standing in the part of the case that complains about the state’s failure to tally write-ins for most write-in candidates, and the failure of certain counties to count write-in votes.
This is unfortunate to say the least. Why dont we know WHO challenged the green party petition or why isnt it revealed here. I guarantee there will be alot more people watching and prepared to take action this time.
Does this mean for certain there will be Tea Party candidates in PA if there has been no challenge to their petition?
Richard,
Great work as always. Thank you. Here’s the internet buzz..not really a surprise…
Sestak seeks to kick Green Party candidate off ballot?
Pennsylvania Ave. (blog) – Colby Itkowitz – 1 hour ago
The Democratic Senate candidate on Monday filed a ballot challenge against Mel Packer, the Green Party candidate running against him and Republican Pat …
http://blogs.mcall.com/penn_ave/2010/08/sestak-seeks-to-kick-green-party-candidate-off-ballot-.html
Laine,
I’d guess yes…
As noted above, after I did this particular post, someone challenged the Libertarian statewide petition and the Tea Party petition.
If all the challenges succeed, Pennsylvania will join Alabama, New Mexico, Washington and Kentucky has the only 5 states that are holding statewide partisan elections this year with a Democratic-Republican ballot monopoly.
Looks like the Anti-Democratic Party is up to their old tricks.
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