The Pennsylvania line-by-line petition-checking process for the statewide Libertarian Party petition has been proceeding this week, just as it has for each of the two previous weeks. On September 26, enough signtures had been validated by the adversarial process so that the petition now has the needed 20,601 valid signatures. Furthermore, there are still some signatures to go through the process.
It appears that the only possible method for the statewide candidates to be removed from the ballot now would be a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, reversing the Commonwealth Court on whether certain signatures are invalid. The Commonwealth Court had ruled that signatures of voters are valid if that signer moved since re-registering and signed with the new address, whereas the old address is still on the voter registration rolls. This ruling only pertains to voters who move within the county, not voters who move to another county. Assuming the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approves this ruling, or takes no action, then the statewide Libertarians are on the ballot.
The only other parties on the ballot for statewide offices are Democratic, Republican, and Green, and the Green Party petition only listed a presidential and vice-presidential nominee; there are no Greens running for U.S. Senate or the other statewide offices. By contrast, the Libertarian petition nominated candidates for U.S. Senate, Attorney General, and Treasurer.
Do the challengers have to pay the legal fees of the Libertarians?
Great news!
This is great news , when do we have official confirmation Gary will be on the ballot for sure?
What does this mean for the LP? 49 states plus D.C.? Missing out on only Michigan?
Anthony D – probably 48 plus DC. It does not look like Oklahoma or Michigan will have Gary Johnson on the ballot, but write-ins will be allowed in Michigan.
There is even some hope for Michigan. The federal court is being asked to order Michigan to let straight-ticket votes for the Libertarian Party be counted. That solves the problem that the ballots are already printed or being printed. People that want to vote for Gary Johnson could just pull the Libertarian straight-ticket device, and if there is some race other than president that that voter wants to vote for a non-Libertarian, he or she is free to have both used the straight-ticket device and then voted separately for that one particular other race.
For a change, the existence of a straight-ticket device might be useful for a minor party.
The courts haven’t been overly fair to us this year, so I HOPE we’re on in PA!
It figures the Republicrats would challenge someone who actually believe in freedom, time for real change not some song and dance act.
So Gary is on the ballot in Pennsylvania now for sure? Is this done and put to bed yet?
And I heard Michigan will be a write in with only Oklahoma being the only state to have a stick up its ass over ballot access.
Pennsylvania is far from being decided yet.
Repeating Arthur DiBianca’s question: “Do the challengers have to pay the legal fees of the Libertarians?”
#11, no one knows yet.