On December 23, attorneys for the state of Georgia filed this brief in Green Party of Georgia v Secretary of State, n.d., 1:12cv-1822. The case was filed in 2012 and the co-plaintiffs are the Green Party and the Constitution Party. It challenges the petition required in Georgia for previously unqualified parties and independent candidates to get on the November ballot for President. For 2016, the requirement is 51,912 signatures.

The state’s brief lists precedents on its side, but none of those precedents involve presidential elections. The state says almost nothing about the state interest in requiring so many signatures for president, and instead mostly attacks the Green Party and the Constitution Parties and says they don’t have enough voter support to belong on the Georgia ballot for President. No presidential petition has succeeded in Georgia since Pat Buchanan did one in 2000, the year he was the Reform Party nominee.

Another round of briefs will be filed in January, and then the case will be ripe for a decision.