The U.S. Supreme Court has assigned a case number to Thompson v De Wine, 20-1072. This is the Ohio case on whether election officials should have eased ballot access for initiatives during the health crisis. The state’s response is due March 8.
There are now at least three ballot access cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. Besides Thompson, there is Kopitke v Bell, 20-897, on the North Carolina independent presidential petition deadline of March 3 of an election year; and there is De La Fuente v Simon, 20-612, over Minnesota’s law letting political parties decide which candidates may appear on that party’s presidential primary ballot.
Also, there is Level the Playing Field v FEC, 20-649, which is not a ballot access case, but which concerns entry into general election presidential debates.
How tough is the petitioning process normally?
It is never really easy, and the COVID hysteria and lockdowns have made it a bit harder, but not impossible, as millions of petition signatures still got collected last year during the COVID hysteria to successfully place issues and candidates on the ballot in a bunch of states.