On November 21, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit against the nation’s most restrictive petition requirement for minor party or independent candidates, the Georgia petition requirement for U.S. House, for minor party and independent candidates. Cowen v Kemp, U.S. District Court, northern district, 1:17cv-4660. It is assigned to Judge Leigh Martin May, an Obama appointee.
Georgia requires a petition of 5% of the registered voters for a candidate for U.S. House who is running other than as a Republican or a Democrat. The existing law has existed since 1964 and has never been used successfully. Although one independent did get on for U.S. House in 1982, that candidate was not required to comply with the 5% petition because his district had been re-drawn in the spring of the election year. The law only applies to regularly-scheduled elections, not special elections. In special elections no one needs a petition.
The requirement amounts to approximately 20,000 valid signatures. District petitioning is more difficult than statewide petitioning, because every potential signer knows what state he or she lives in, but most potential signers don’t know what district they live in. Also in Georgia, as in many states, the district boundaries are very irregular.
The last time anyone sued over Georgia’s petition requirement for U.S. House was 2008, when independent Faye Coffield sued. The Eleventh Circuit said that because she had not submitted any evidence that anyone had ever tried to petition for U.S. House in Georgia, her case was not strong enough to prevail. The new Libertarian lawsuit will have evidence that at least ten candidates have tried and failed to petition for U.S. House in Georgia. The U.S. Supreme Court has said twice that ballot access laws that seldom get used successfully are probably unconstitutional.
The 39-page Complaint documents that the Libertarian Party has substantial voter support in Georgia for its statewide nominees. The party has polled over 30% in statewide partisan races four times during the last decade. The party is ballot-qualified only for statewide office. The Libertarian Party has placed 2,564 nominees for U.S. House in regular elections during its lifetime, and they have been on the ballot in all states except Georgia.
Every election continues to be NEW —
IE having EQUAL ballot access tests — regardless of ALL of the JUNK SCOTUS *opinions* since 1968.
Can we just ban these dumbasses already (Demo Rep and James Ogle – or whatever the fuck it is). They’re making this place unbearable.
Also- a total failure to note since 1954 that —
separate is NOT equal — Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 —
regardless of the legal history brain dead morons on this list.
For non-morons —
the major SCOTUS JUNK ballot access cases have been —
Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23 (1968),
Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431 (1971),
American Party of Texas v. White, 415 U.S. 767 (1974),
Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189 (1986),
Norman v. Reed, 502 U.S. 279 (1992),
New York State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres, 552 U.S. 196 (2008)
a mere 49 years of JUNK opinions.
Find the GA case.