On July 15, Quinnipiac University Polls released a presidential election poll. Respondents were only asked if they would vote for President Trump or Joe Biden, but 3% volunteered that they would vote for someone else, and 2% volunteered that they would not vote for anyone. The other categories are Biden 52%, Trump 37%, and don’t know 6%. Here is the poll. Scroll down to question two. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On July 15, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., an Obama appointee, cut the number of signatures for minor party and independent candidates in Virginia for federal office (there are no state offices up in Virginia in 2020). The presidential petition is now 2,500 signatures. The U.S. Senate petition is now 3,500 signatures. The U.S. House requirement is 350 signatures. Constitution Party of Virginia v Virginia State Board of Elections, 3:20cv-349. Without this relief, president would have been 5,000; U.S. Senate 10,000; U.S. House 1,000.
Here is the opinion. The relief only extends to the plaintiffs, which are the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Independent Green Parties and their plaintiff-candidates.
The presidential petition remains the same, August 21. The new deadline for congressional candidates is August 1, at 7 p.m. That is a Saturday. The old deadline was in June. Thanks to Tina Rockett for this news.
On July 13, U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney amended his opinion of June 30 in Acosta v Wolf, e.d., 2:20cv-2528. This is the ballot access case filed by an independent candidate for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s Third District. The June 30 order had denied ballot access relief, and had erroneously said the candidate needs 1,000 signatures. The July 13 correction now has the actual requirement, which is 5,752 signatures.
The July 13 opinion says the conclusion still stands, and that the plaintiff should be denied relief. The July 13 order says nothing about the point that the requirement that the plaintiff obtain 5,752 signatures seems to violate the U.S. Supreme Court opinions Illinois State Board of Elections and Norman v Reed. Both opinions said states can’t require more signatures for a district office than for a statewide office. The Pennsylvania statewide rqeuirement is 5,000, which is less than what is needed for U.S. House, 3rd district.
The Arkansas Secretary of State has rejected three statewide initiative petitions for the same reason, that the sponsors had a tiny wording error in their certification about the paid circulators. The law says the sponsors are supposed to certify that the paid circulators passed a criminal background check. Instead the sponsors submitted a statement that they had checked the criminal histories of all the circulators. See this story.
The three initiatives deal with these subjects: (1) a nonpartisan redistricting commission; (2) a top-four election system; (3) gambling. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
The Secretary of State had not yet checked the validity of the signatures.
Here is a news story that says Kanye West is no longer an independent presidential candidate. Some stories reported that he had hired petitioners in Florida and South Carolina, but they are no longer working.
