On December 10, the Georgia Secretary of State filed this reply brief in the Eleventh Circuit in Cowen v Raffensperger, 21-13199. This is the Libertarian Party case against the 5% petition for district and county partisan office. The U.S. District Court had struck the law down.

The state’s brief is deceptive when it says that when the Libertarian Party once made a strong effort to qualify a U.S. House candidate, it almost succeeded. The state fails to say that in that instance, the petition had been lowered to 3%, for 2002 only, due to late redistricting. The state also says no other Libertarian ever made a truly serious effort to try to meet the 5% petition requirement for U.S. House, but the state fails to mention several other petitioning candidates who did make a very strong effort, yet still failed. These instances are mentioned in the Libertarian Party’s brief.