On March 27, the North Carolina Constitution Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against North Carolina’s May petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. The case is North Carolina Constitution Party v Bartlett. It is expected that the North Carolina Green Party will soon join the case.

In 1988, North Carolina’s Board of Elections was so sure that the May petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties is unconstitutional, that it waived the deadline and allowed the New Alliance Party to submit its petition in July.

States in which May and June petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties to submit their signatures have been held too early, or have been enjoined, are Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Also, in Populist Party v Herschler, a Wyoming case, the 10th circuit said that June is probably too early, but didn’t definitely decide the issue. States in which independent presidential petition deadlines in May and June have been struck down are Arizona, Kansas, and South Dakota. In some instances, the states agreed that their deadlines were too early and didn’t contest the lawsuit. North Carolina clearly has no state interest in requiring newly-qualifying parties to submit the petition in May, because in North Carolina, newly-qualifying parties do not nominate by primary, and the state lets independent candidates submit their petitions in June.