The Pennsylvania challenge period has passed. No one challenged the signatures of the Constitution, Green, Libertarian Parties, or the independent petition for Rocky De La Fuente. However, the Pennsylania Department of State rejected De La Fuente’s petition because the Department believes that the sore loser law applies to him. He was on the ballot in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania.

No other presidential candidate has ever before been denied a place on a November ballot in Pennsylvania because he or she ran in a presidential primary. De La Fuente plans to sue Pennsylvania to get on the ballot. The basic arguments against applying a sore loser law to a presidential primary are: (1) the true candidates in November are the candidates for presidential elector, and they aren’t sore losers; (2) the true candidates in Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries are running for Delegate to a national convention; (3) the US Supreme Court ruled in 1995 in U.S. Term Limits v Thornton that states cannot add to the constitutional qualifications for federal office. To apply a sore loser law to a presidential candidate is to say that the candidate is not eligible because of past political behavior, and that is creating a qualification that is not listed in the U.S. Constitution. Petition requirements are not qualifications because they are not personal to the candidate and anyone can collect signatures for a candidate; similarly filing fees are not personal to the candidate because anyone can pay the fee for the candidate.

A challenge was filed to the Libertarian nominee for Attorney General, not because of petition problems, but because he is not an attorney. The party is free to substitute a new nominee if it wishes.