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.
On September 3, a Virginia state trial court removed Kanye West from the ballot, on the basis that eleven of his thirteen presidential elector candidates were not informed that they had signed up to be his presidential elector candidates.
As noted before, the Virginia State Board of Elections put Kanye West on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate, but then some of his presidential elector candidates filed a lawsuit in state court, charging that they did not intend to become candidates for him for presidential elector. The lawsuit is against the State Board of Elections.
Kanye West has intervened in the case, and he is asking that the Attorney General of Virginia be recused from defending the State Board of Elections, because the Attorney General has made public comments that suggest he really doesn’t agree that West should have been put on the ballot. Wilson v Virginia State Board of Elections, city of Richmond circuit court, CL20004252-00.
On September 3, the West Virginia Secretary of State asked the U.S. District Court that is hearing Kanye West’s ballot access case to transfer the case to another U.S. District Court Judge, who is hearing the lawsuit filed by independent gubernatorial candidate Marshall Wilson. Here is the state’s eight-page request. Kanye West’s case is West v Warner, 2:20cv-570. Marshall Wilson’s case is 2:20cv-526.
The two cases are not similar, even if they both concern ballot access. Wilson’s case concerns the health crisis. He did not submit as many signatures as are required, but he asks to be put on the ballot anyway. By contrast, West’s case is about due process. West submitted twice as many signatures as are required, but he was told he did not have enough valid and he was not given a chance to challenge that finding.
This newspaper story describes the lawsuit over whether 41 Libertarians running for Texas state office and congressional office should be removed from the November ballot. All of the briefs are now in, and the Texas Supreme Court will decide soon. As the story notes, two of the justices are up for re-election this year and have Libertarian opponents whose ballot status is being challenged. Texas elects its State Supreme Court in statewide partisan elections.
