As already reported, on March 29, the Sixth Circuit struck down Michigan’s statewide independent candidate petition, which required 30,000 signatures due in July. The time for the state to ask for a rehearing has now passed, and the state did not ask for a rehearing. Graveline v Benson, 20-1337. The basis for the decision was that the petition had been in existence since 1988, but in all those years, only two statewide independent petitions had succeeded, both for president (Ralph Nader in 2004 and Ross Perot in 1992). For other statewide office, it had never been used at all.
The Sixth Circuit includes four states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The Graveline precedent will make it plausible to challenge the new party petition procedures in Tennessee and Ohio. The Tennessee party petition had existed since 1961 but has been used only once, in 1968, by George Wallace’s American Party.
Even Americans Elect failed in Tennessee, in 2012. Tennessee is the only state in which Americans Elect thought it had finished a petition drive, turned in the signatures, and was told it didn’t have enough valid signatures. For 2022, Tennessee requires 56,083 signatures.
The Ohio party petition has existed since 1971 and has been used in 1976, 1982, 1996, 2000, 2011, and 2018. For 2022, it requires 57,630 signatures.
It appears that although Tennessee is quite vulnerable to being overturned from non-use, Ohio will have a stronger chance of fighting off a challenge in court since it has been used successfully many times during the past half-century. Anyways, we shall see.