A U.S. District Court in North Carolina will hear arguments in Kopitke v Bell on Thursday, November 7, at 2 p.m. This is the case that challenges various ballot access laws relating to independent candidates, including a challenge to the early March petition deadline for independent candidate petitions. The case is e.d., 7:19cv-164. The March petition deadline, as applied to independent presidential candidates, is obviously unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze, which in 1983 struck down Ohio’s March 20 petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. The North Carolina deadline is March 3, easily the earliest in the nation. The next-earliest is the Texas May deadline, which is also under court attack.

Until 2017, the North Carolina independent petition deadline was in mid-May. The 2017 session of the legislature moved it to early March.