On June 21, the Maryland State Court of Appeals (the highest state court in that state) struck down a Maryland law that says if someone from “County A” signs a statewide petition that is supposed to be just for residents of “County B”, that the “County A” signature is invalid. The case is Nader v Maryland State Board of Elections, no. 76-Sept 2004 term. The vote was 4-3.

This is the first time any court has ever ruled that a signature must be considered valid, even if it is on the wrong petition. The fact that the state has a list of all the registered voters in the state was the key fact. Under the Help America Vote Act, all states are required to keep a centralized list of all the voters in that state. This decision may be influential for other states in the future. Thanks to Doug McNeil for this news.

Nader had filed this lawsuit in 2004. The State Court of Appeals at that time had issued a one-sentence order putting him on the ballot, which meant that the court thought the law was probably unconstitutional. However, there was no guarantee that when the court finally issued its opinion, that it would come to this conclusion. There have been times when a court issued an injunction putting a candidate or a party on the ballot, but by the time they actually wrote the opinion, they came to a different conclusion and upheld the law that had been enjoined.