On September 1, U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Dorsey upheld Nevada’s June petition deadline for unqualified parties to submit a petition for ballot access. Nevada Green Party v Cegavske, 2:16cv-1951.
The decision acknowledges that in 1992, another U.S. District Court Judge in Nevada enjoined the June 10 deadline. The current deadline is June 3. But Judge Dorsey said the 1992 precedent doesn’t apply because back then, the petition requirement was 3%, and nowadays it is 1%. This is an erroneous conclusion of law. Early petition deadlines for presidential independent candidate are unconstitutional no matter how few signatures are required. This is obvious, because in Anderson v Celebrezze, Ohio’s independent petition deadline was too early, even though the number of signatures was only one-tenth of 1% of the last presidential vote cast, and was only eight-hundredths of 1% of the number of registered voters. That percentage is mentioned in the U.S. District Court decision in Anderson v Celebrezze.
Judge Dorsey mentioned that the Ninth Circuit had struck down Arizona’s independent petition deadline in 2008, and Arizona’s petition deadline was later than Nevada’s deadline. But she wrote that in Arizona, few independent candidates for president ever qualified, whereas in Nevada, the Libertarian and Independent American Parties are on the ballot. But the Libertarian and Independent American Parties have not had to petition since 1986 (in the case of the Libertarians) and even earlier for the IAP, so that is irrelevant. Judge Dorsey also mentioned that the Green Party was on the ballot in Nevada in the past.
Judge Dorsey did not mention that June petition deadlines have been invalidated in South Dakota, Alaska, and Kansas. However, the latter two were unpublished opinions. UPDATE: here is a news story about the decision, although it doesn’t explain the lawsuit very well.
At least in Nevada if your candidate doesn’t get on the ballot you can vote None Of The Above (NOTA).
Don’t waste your vote please vote for the only Third party that can win, Gary Johnson.
Is there time to go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals?
One more MORON UNEQUAL ballot access case since 1968.
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1. Every election is NEW.
2. Separate is NOT equal.
3. Equal ballot access tests for ALL candidates for the same office in the same area.
Way too difficult for the MORON lawyers and super MORON judges (Fed and State) in ballot access cases.
Richard, please correct me if wrong, but . . . . If Nevada’s “None Of The Above” gets the most votes it means nothing and the candidate with the most “real” votes wins.
Is there anything else we can do in time, (re John Anthony La Pietra’s question) or is Nevada lost to us this time around? Can we appeal, to pursue the matter for next time, even if there’s not time to get on the ballot for this election?
Gary Johnson would only be a lesser evil himself, even if he won.
Well rats. Then again, expected. Few areas of government are safe from partisan bias these days.
The judge is probably a Democrat.
For any clueless on this list — ALL New Age appointed and partisan elected judges are robot party HACKS — due to the POWER in the USA/State regimes — all HACK Fed/State/Local regimes are now taxing/borrowing/spending about 40-45 percent of the USA GDP.
The judge HACKS will NOT disturb the corrupt and evil party HACK OLIGARCHY ORDER of things — since 1865 or 1933.
SOME nonpartisan elected appellate judges in SOME States — a bit safe ONLY if their nonpartisan elected status is in State constitutions.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Will they appeal further?
@Nate: Dunno about Judge Dorsey’s party affiliation, but Richard reported on Tuesday that she was an Obama appointee.
Is “Independent” status or “Write-in” status for Jill Stein doable at this point?
It does seem suspicious that 3861 signatures are discarded!!! I wonder how hard they’ve tried to verify the signatures. Did they provide any information/explanation why the signatures were discarded? It is possible that they’ve just looked for a way to exclude Jill Stein from the ballot access.
http://pvtimes.com/news/nevada-green-party-awaits-ruling-get-candidate-ballot