On May 11, the New York Libertarian Party, as well as independent U.S. Senate candidate Diane Sare, asked the state trial court that invalidated the U.S. House and State Senate districts to let them intervene. The intervention would be for the purpose of judicial relief for the 2022 petitions for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The candidates ask for fewer signatures for statewide candidates, an elimination of the distribution requirement for the statewide petitions, and an extension of the petition deadline from May 31 to June 27. The case is Harkenrider v Hochul, in the Supreme Court, Steuben County.

Here is the brief. Without judicial relief, the statewide petitions must have 500 signatures from each of half the U.S. House districts, and yet the district boundaries won’t be known until May 20, and the petition deadline is May 29.

The South Carolina legislature will adjourn on Thursday, May 12. HB 4919, the bill to ban fusion, seems unlikely to pass. The bill passed the House on March 3, and passed the State Senate on April 21. But the Senate amended the bill and sent it back to the House, to see if the House would agree to the amendment. So far the House has taken no action since then.

On May 11, a New York state trial court said that the petitioning period for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, for U.S. House and State Senate, will be from May 21 through July 5. Harkenrider v Hochul, Steuben County Supreme Court, E2022-0116cv.

The period is only 45 days, and starts the day after the new boundaries will have been released. The primary for U.S. House and State Senate will be August 23. There seems to be no reason why the independent petitions couldn’t be due on August 23, except for the New York habit that the petitioning period is quite short.

See the order here. The order also sets out procedures for primary candidates for U.S. House and State Senate. Thanks to Joe Burns for the link.

The order has no relevance to statewide petitions. However the statewide petitions need 500 signatures from each of half the U.S. House districts. It is very unjust to retain those distribution requirements and yet keep the statewide petition deadlines on May 31.