On October 19, the Tennessee Green Party and the Tennessee Constitution Party filed a supplemental brief in the Sixth Circuit, concerning the order of candidates on the ballot. In their 2011 ballot access lawsuit called Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett, the parties had also won on the issue of the order in which candidates and parties are listed on the ballot. The U.S. District Court had struck down the law giving the two largest parties the best spot on the ballot.

The Sixth Circuit had then stayed the part of the U.S. District Court decision on the order of candidates on the ballot, but did not decide the issue. The state had argued that the evidence in the U.S. District Court, showing that ballot order affects voting behavior, doesn’t relate to party-column ballots, and the state had asserted, or implied, that all Tennessee counties use a party-column ballot.

The October 19 filing to the Sixth Circuit proves that some counties in Tennessee use an office-group ballot. The brief has a picture of one of these ballots for the 2012 election. Of course, this filing has no effect on the 2012 ballots, but will be persuasive when the issue is decided in the Sixth Circuit. If the Sixth Circuit eventually agrees with the U.S. District Court, Tennessee will in future elections give each party/candidate an equal chance to be listed first on the ballot.