On January 23, 2017, at 8:30 a.m., Judge David O. Carter will hear arguments in Merritt v Padilla, c.d., 8:16v-606. The case had been filed in April 2016 after an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, Paul Merritt, noticed that his candidate statement in the government-printed Voters Handbook had been altered without his approval or knowledge. California lets statewide candidates pay to have statements in the book. The Secretary of State had deleted Merritt’s sentence saying he is a registered independent voter. Merritt’s sentence was true.
The hearing is in Santa Ana.
How about a statement —
The CA SOS is a TYRANT ANTI-First Amendment robot party HACK ???
The name of the candidate, their political affiliation, mailing address, phone number, e-mail, and website are descriptive and not part of the statement.
On his declaration of candidacy, Merritt stated that his party affiliation on his voter registration was No Party Preference.
His submitted statement included as its initial line.
“Paul Merritt Registered Independent voter”
which was a repetition of what he had written earlier on the form, and was not factually accurate.
It appears that the line was not interpreted as part of the statement.