July 19 is the Michigan deadline for independent candidate petitions. Christopher Graveline, a well-qualified independent candidate for Attorney General, brought about 18,000 signatures into the office, but his filing was rejected because it was below the required 30,000 signatures. See this earlier article about Graveline.
No independent candidate for any statewide office in Michigan has ever successfully petitioned, except for Ross Perot in 1992 and Ralph Nader in 2004. The state did not even have statutory procedures for independent candidates until 1988.
It is possible Graveline will file a lawsuit to overturn the ballot access law. Courts have been virtually unanimous that independent candidate petition deadlines can’t be earlier than the date of the primary, and Michigan’s primary is August 7.
Other states this year in which highly-qualified independent candidates for statewide office have tried and failed to get on the ballot are Arizona, Indiana, and Texas.
How many MORON lawyers and worse moron judges since 1954 Brown v Bd of Ed unable to detect —
1. Each election is NEW.
2. Each office is separate.
3. 14-1 EPC requires EQUAL ballot access tests for ALL candidates for each such office.
—
PR and AppV
That’s interesting since here in NY we’re petitioning to get Larry Sharpe on the ballot for governor but our petitions have to be in by August 21st and the primaries for all state level offices are on Sept. 13th. Could this be challenged in court based on those past court cases?
BL-
GET A LAWYER TONIGHT WITH A FEW 14-1 EPC BRAIN CELLS AND GO TO COURT TOMORROW.
Brandon, the general principle I set forth works except in states with September primaries. When the primary is that late, the general principle doesn’t stand up, because pragmatic reasons help states defend petition deadlines in August. There have been only two cases that struck down August petition deadlines, in Alaska in 1990, and Rhode Island in 1976.
What constitutes “highly qualified”? I see that qualifier was used repeatedly in the article.