The Fourth Circuit had tentatively set the oral argument date in Pisano v Strach, 13-1368, for the period October 29-November 1. This is the case that challenges the May petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties to submit their 90,000 valid signatures. The U.S. District Court had refused to allow the plaintiffs to engage in discovery to see if the state really has any valid interest in this deadline. The U.S. District Court had dismissed the case with a short opinion, which seemed to combine an attitude that the plaintiffs don’t have standing, and a blanket assertion that any state ballot access regulation is automatically constitutional.

Back in 1988, the North Carolina State Board of Elections was so convinced that the May deadline was unconstitutional, it waived the deadline and let the New Alliance Party submit its petition in July. Newly-qualifying parties in North Carolina nominate by convention, so there is no reason to have the deadline as early as May. In the past, the North Carolina petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties was in August. It was moved to July in 1949, and to May in 1979.