On November 2, Faye Coffield filed her cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.  She is hoping the Court will respond.  The petition emphasizes that Georgia ballot access requirements for minor party and independent candidates are so restrictive, they have existed in their present form since 1964 and have never been used.  Georgia requires a petition of approximately 16,000 to 20,000 valid signatures for that office.

Furthermore, the petitions must be notarized.  Petitions cannot circulate during odd years.  Only fourteen inch long paper can be used for the petitions, which makes it difficult to distribute them cheaply on the internet, because most people don’t have printers that work well with paper longer than eleven inches.  Georgia requires the second highest filing fee in the nation, in addition to the petition.  The filing fee must be paid before the petition is due and before the candidate knows if his or her petition will succeed.  Georgia has extraordinarily complicated boundaries for its U.S. House districts, which makes it difficult for petitions to have a high validity rate, because so many voters on the street don’t know which district they live in.

Not all of these points could be included in Coffield’s cert petition, because they were not all mentioned in the complaint.  The Coalition for Free & Open Elections, in combination with the Center for a Competitive Democracy, hopes to file an amicus brief, pointing these things out.  But COFOE badly needs donations to cover the costs of the amicus.  Please consider donating to COFOE.  To do that, send a check to COFOE, to PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147.  People who contribute at least $25 will receive Ballot Access News for a year, in the postal mail.