On August 24, Rocky De La Fuente filed a federal lawsuit against the South Dakota Secretary of State, over whether his independent presidential petition has enough valid signatures. The state said only 57% of his signatures are valid, which is unusually low in South Dakota, which has a high rate of voter registration.
The state did not check all the signatures; it relied on a random sample. The case is De La Fuente v Krebs, 3:16cv-3035. It is assigned to Judge Roberto Lange, an Obama appointee. The judge has already set a hearing date, Tuesday, August 30, at 1 p.m.
Reliance on a random sample is absurd, what is the purpose of submitting a petition if the state isn’t actually going to check the petition in the first place?