The U.S. Supreme Court has put Greene v Bartlett, 11-868, on its conference of February 24, 2012. The Court won’t say whether it will take this case until Monday, February 27, at the earliest. The case challenges North Carolina’s ballot access procedure for independent candidates to get on the ballot for U.S. House. The procedure is so difficult that no independent candidate for U.S. House has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot, and North Carolina has been using government-printed ballots since 1901. The law requires approximately 20,000 valid signatures.

The lower courts upheld the law, partly because in 2010, the SEIU union successfully circulated such a petition. However, the candidate named on that petition had not consented to run, and he withdrew. Facts about the SEIU petition success are not in the record because the petition circulated after all the evidence in the Greene case had been filed. Chances are, the SEIU spent between $50,000 and $100,000 on the petition drive.

In the meantime, the North Carolina legislature has gone into session and might pass ballot access reform. HB 32, which lowers petition requirements for independent candidates and for unqualified political parties, passed the House on June 7, 2011, and is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The legislature seems slow to act on any bills this month. Even the omnibus election law bill, which is clearly favored to pass, has not moved yet this month. The omnibus election law bill, SB 47, makes several changes desired by the Republican leadership of the legislature, including ending the process by which the Democratic Party is always listed on the top spot on the ballot, and restoring partisan judicial elections, and eliminating the straight-ticket device.