On the afternoon of September 3, the Tennessee Secretary of State amended the list of presidential candidates on the ballot to include Don Blankenship, the Constitution Party nominee. See the list here. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.
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On September 1, some Illinois Republican Party activists filed a state court lawsuit to remove William Redpath from the ballot. Redpath is the Libertarian nominee for U.S. House, 6th district. His petition was challenged earlier this year, but the administrative body that hears ballot access petitions ruled that Redpath’s petition has enough valid signatures.
The lawsuit alleges that Redpath does not have enough signatures, if people who signed his petition and who had already voted in the March 2020 primary are not counted. There is no Illinois law that says primary voters can’t sign for an independent candidate or the nominee of an unqualified party. But the lawsuit alleges that this requirement is “implicit”. The case is Bixler v Illinois State Board of Elections, 2020MR775, Sangamon County Circuit Court.
Illinois law once did provide that primary voters could not sign for an independent candidate, but that law was repealed in 1975.
On September 2, the Michigan State Court of Appeals ordered that a local initiative on term limits be placed on the Warren, Michigan, ballot. It concerns term limits for mayors. Warren City Council v Buffa, 354663. The city council favored placing measure on the ballot, but the Mayor and the city clerk did not. The city council was forced to sue its own city clerk to get the measure on the ballot. Here is the decision. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On September 3, an Arizona state trial court enjoined Arizona election officials from printing Kanye West’s name on the ballot as an independent candidate, because he is a registered Republican in his home state of Wyoming. Clayton v West, superior court, Maricopa County.
Never before in history has any presidential candidate been kept off any state’s ballot because of how he or she is registered to vote.
West’s petition had also been challenged because his electors were mostly registered Republicans, but by the time of the court proceeding, they had all changed their voter registration to “independent.” The Arizona election law says only registered independents can qualify as independent candidates, but it does not have a deadline for how long they have been registered.
The challenger also said that presidential elector candidates must file a campaign finance statement, but no party nominees for presidential elector ever file such a document. The decision does not decide that issue. Thanks to Derek Muller for the link. Muller has this commentary on the decision; he disagrees with it.
Arizona is in the Ninth Circuit, and the Ninth Circuit ruled in Schaefer v Townsend that congressional candidates cannot be kept off the ballot just because they aren’t registered to vote, because that would be adding to the qualifications listed in the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court said on July 6, 2020, in Chiafalo v Washington that the same principle applies to presidential candidates, and that states cannot add qualifications not listed in the Constitution. Therefore, it seems that any election law regulating how a presidential candidate is registered, or whether he or she is registered, would be unconstitutional.
On September 3, Howie Hawkins asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to put him on the ballot. He had enough signatures, but the Wisconsin Elections Commission on a 3-3 tie vote removed him, because some of the petitions had been collected before his vice-presidential running mate had moved her residence (so those petitions showed her old address); and later petitions showed her newer, more current address. Hawkins v Wisconsin Elections Commission. Here is the filing.