On May 22, Robert Raymond, a professional petitioner, filed his brief in the Ninth Circuit in Raymond v Fenumiai, 13-35090. The issue is Alaska’s ban on out-of-state petitioners, which only includes ballot measures, not candidates. The U.S. District Court had ruled that Raymond lacks standing because he didn’t specify any particular initiative petition he wished to work on. Therefore, his brief to the Ninth Circuit is on the issue of whether he has standing.

There are now ballot access cases pending in the Ninth Circuit from four states, Alaska, Arizona, California, and Nevada. The Arizona case concerns whether states that provide primaries to five parties can just list two of those parties on the voter registration forms. The California case includes one filed by the Peace & Freedom Party over presidential qualifications, and one filed by a California candidate on the subject of discriminatory ballot label laws. The Nevada case concerns whether “None of the Above” is unconstitutional unless it is altered to provide that if it wins, it is binding.