August 6 is the Maryland petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates. The Libertarian Party just submitted 5,636 signatures, hoping that at least 2,766 are valid. The Green Party had turned in its first supplemental petition on July 19, containing 3,921 more signatures, but then those had been checked and they were still 138 short. But on August 6, the Greens submitted a third petition, this one with 1,652 more signatures.

The state requires 10,000. The reason supplemental petitions are needed is that even though the parties had already submitted petitions last year, and even though a lower state court had said those petitions were sufficient, earlier this year the highest state court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that signatures are not valid if a voter’s middle initial is listed in the voter registration records and yet the signature on the petition doesn’t include the middle initial on the petition. Also that Court invalidated signatures when a voter signed once without the middle initial, and then signed again, this time with the middle initial (so that both signatures are invalid). Thanks to Bob Johnston and Brian Bittner for this news.