Georgia this year required independent presidential candidates to file their 7,500 signatures by July 12. But the state also required such candidates to file the names of the presidential elector candidates by July 1. Rocky De La Fuente petitioned in Georgia and submitted 14,000 signatures by the July 12 deadline. But because he hadn’t turned in a list of his presidential elector candidates by July 1, the state rejected his petition, although it still went to the trouble to determine how many signatures were valid. The state said only about 20% of his signatures were invalid.

When De La Fuente challenged the petition verification in state court, the court ruled that it didn’t matter how many signatures were valid, because he couldn’t get on the ballot anyway because he hadn’t filed his electors by July 1. De La Fuente is also challenging the July 1 deadline for presidential electors, although that case is in federal court. On October 17, he filed this brief in the Eleventh Circuit in his case challenging the July 1 elector deadline. De La Fuente relies heavily on the state’s failure to come up with any actual state interest for requiring the elector candidates by July 1. The case is De La Fuente v Kemp, 16-15880.