On June 23, U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake declined to enjoin Arizona’s county distribution requirement for petitions to place statewide candidates on the primary ballot. Arizona law requires signatures of one-half of 1% of the registered members of a party to sign statewide primary petitions. In addition, the one-half of 1% standard must be met in at least three counties. The plaintiffs had challenged the requirement that the threshold be met in three counties.

The five-page order says nothing about the validity of the law, but says that the plaintiffs should have filed the lawsuit earlier. Plaintiffs had admitted that they started thinking about filing the lawsuit in December 2013, but did not actually file it until May 15, 2014. The case is Arizona Public Integrity Alliance v Bennett, 2:14cv-1044.