Wisconsin Democratic Party Official Files Challenge to Green Party’s Secretary of State Petition

In Wisconsin, all qualified parties nominate by primary. So even when a minor party is ballot-qualified, members of that party must submit petitions to be on their own party’s primary ballot. The Green Party is a qualified party. This year the only Green Party member who filed a petition for a statewide office is Pete Karas, who filed 2,840 to run for Secretary of State in the Green Party primary. The requirement is 2,000 signatures.

Karas needs to poll at least 1% in the general election, or the Green Party will lose its qualified status.

On May 29, an individual who has held office in the Democratic Party challenged the Karas petition, on the grounds that Karas used an obsolete petition form. In April, a few days before the start of petitioning, the state altered the petition forms so that now it says the circulator is a resident of Wisconsin. The old form did not say that, because until this year, out-of-state circulators were legal. But under a new law, out-of-state circulators are no longer permitted to work in Wisconsin, except they make work on presidential petitions.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will hear the challenge on Tuesday, June 9. Karas is submitting affidavits from his circulators that they are each Wisconsin residents.

New Jersey Posts Candidate List for November

On November 4, the New Jersey Elections office posted a list of general election candidates. Here is the U.S. Senate list. Neither the Libertarian Party candidate, nor the Green Party candidate, submitted a petition. The only minor party whch did submit a petition is the Socialist Workers Party. Also, two independent candidates submitted a petition. The requirement is 2,000.

Here is the U.S. House list.

Florida Democratic Congressional Candidate Hector Mujica May be Removed from Primary Ballot Because of an Unconstitutional Florida Ballot Access Law

Hector Mujica is the leading Democrat running for U.S. House in the 28th district. He has been head of Americas Phianthropy at Google. But his Democratic opponent has challenged his ballot position, because voter registration records show that Mujica was a registered independent between June 4, 2025, and July 26, 2025. Florida law says no one may run in a primary if the individual was not a registered member of the party for the 365 days preceding the opening of the candidate qualifying period, which was in April 2026. Section 99.021(1)(b)2.

Mujica denies that he was a registered independent at any time in the past. See this story. The Broward County Elections office asserts that there is no mistake, although so far no one has produced any actual voter registration form signed by Mujica showing himself registering as an independent.

The irony is that the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut in 1986 that the First Amendment, freedom of association clause, forbids a state from telling a party that it can’t nominate a non-member. If the Florida Democratic Party had its own bylaw contradicting the state law, the party could prevail in court. But the Florida Democratic Party has no such bylaw.

Another constitutional problem for the law is that it appears to require that a congressional candidate must have been a registered voter for the preceding 365 days before the opening of the qualifying period. Yet four U.S. Courts of Appeals have ruled that states cannot require congressional candidates to be registered voters. The circuits are the 9th, 10th, 2nd, and 5th. Also the law appears to require congressional candidates to have lived in Florida for the period, and that also violates the principle that states cannot add to the constitutional qualifications for congressional candidates.