The 5th circuit will hear oral arguments in Brian Moore v Hosemann, 09-60272, on November 4, 2009, in Houston. This is the case on whether the Mississippi Secretary of State should have accepted paperwork to put Brian Moore on the November 2008 ballot. The paperwork arrived ten minutes past 5 p.m. However, the Mississippi election code only gives the date on which such paperwork is due, not the hour. Other election law deadlines in Mississippi do provide a precise hourly deadline, but the law on when presidential elector declarations of candidacy are due does not.
In many states it is common for state elections officials to keep extended hours on deadline days when there is no hour specified.
Brian Moore was the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate last year, but he had also been nominated by the Natural Law Party of Mississippi, which is still ballot-qualified. The only other state in which the Natural Law Party is still ballot-qualified is Michigan. The Michigan unit of the party nominated Ralph Nader for president in 2008.
Another MORON case.
If the regime has *normal* working hours on the deadline DAY in question, then the deadline is obviously the END of the normal working day.
i.e. 4, 4:30 or 5 generally.
How many genius candidates have even the brains to check the absolute deadline time of day ???
This type of case is why the courts keep blasting third party and independent candidates OFF the ballots.
“The paperwork arrived ten minutes past 5 p.m.”
I wouldn’t call this a moron case. I live in a county of around 100k people and every time I go to the board of elections there is someone else there on business ahead of me. It’s even more hectic on a deadline day. Imagine going to the SOS’s office even the week before election day…
We can’t we just have a uniform federal election code?