On August 17, Faye Coffield filed her first brief in the 11th circuit, in Coffield v Handel, 09-13277, the case challenging the 5% (of the number of registered voters) petition requirement for minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House. As the brief makes abundantly clear, no one has completed this petition since 1964, and back in 1964, the petition was due in October of the election year and the signatures were presumed to be valid. Here is the brief.
The lower court had upheld the law on the basis that the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the 5% petition in Jenness v Fortson in 1971. However, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 had depended on the fact that the statewide petition had been successfully used in 1966 and 1968. The evidence shows that statewide petitions are easier to circulate than district petitions, because so many signatures for district petitions are always invalidated because the signer is a registered voter but lives in the wrong district. Statewide petitions don’t have that difficulty.
I will be following this case even closer now that it has gone to the 11th Circuit. I am running as an Independent in the 13th Congressional District. If they can get the 5% rule struck, and the state’s 1% rule for the statewide offices, that will certainly make my job SO MUCH easier! Instead of looking at 23,000 or so signatures, will only need 4,600.
Separate continues NOT to be equal.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 — NOT brought up in the zillion ballot access cases since 1968 — especially Fortson in 1971.
Too much for the MORON lawyers to understand.