On August 28, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby held a hearing in Hoffman v Dunlap, no. 08-cv-279. The question is whether Hoffman, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, should be on the ballot. Hoffman’s co-plaintiffs include 14 voters who signed his petition, including some voters whose signatures were stricken simply because they had signed the same sheet on which another voter had signed and then had said that Herb Hoffman had not been watching when that signature was placed on the petition. The Secretary of State, and a lower state court in Maine, had only invalidated the 3 signatures of the people who had signed and then said that Hoffman had not been watching them sign. But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court had invalidated all 90 signatures on the same 3 sheets, which put Hoffman below the required 4,000 signatures.

The federal case argues that the rights of the signers who signed the same sheets are being violated by an arbitrary disallowance of their signatures for no valid reason. The federal case also argues that the law on witnessing signatures is unconstitutionally vague. Judge Hornby said he will rule by close of business on Friday, August 29.