On the evening of September 27, the Virginia State Board of Elections filed a response with the U.S. Supreme Court in Lux v Rodrigues, 10A-298.  This is the case that challenges a law that no one may circulate a petition for a candidate for U.S. House, if the circulator doesn’t live in that district.  UPDATE:  on the afternoon of September 28, Lux filed his 10-page response.

The state’s response says that the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have struck down restrictions on who can circulate a petition do not apply in this case, because both those two decisions involved initiatives, not candidates.  Also the state says that even if the U.S. Supreme Court tells the state to check the Lux petition, he probably wouldn’t have enough valid signatures anyway.  The state bases this idea on the fact that elections officials did check the petition validity of the Lux petitions that were circulated by residents, and if one extrapolates, Lux doesn’t have enough valid signatures.  However, only 161 of the Lux signatures were circulated to residents of the district, whereas 1,062 of the Lux signatures were gathered by the candidate himself.  It is quite possible that the candidate himself, Herb Lux, did a better job of petitioning than other people who circulated his petition.  The state has never checked the validity of the signatures gathered by the candidate himself.