On August 4, Stephen “Marshall” Wilson, an independent state legislator who is running for Governor of West Virginia, filed a federal lawsuit for ballot access relief due to the health crisis. He needed 7,139 signatures and he submitted 7,200 on the August 3 deadline, but the Secretary of State the next day determined he did not have enough signatures.

Wilson v Justice, s.d., 2:20cv-526. Wilson had repeatedly asked for ballot access relief. The Secretary of State, Mac Warner, said he was favorable to granting some relief, but that he could not act without the approval of Governor Jim Justice. Of course, Wilson is running against Governor Justice. Here is the Complaint. UPDATE: the case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas E. Johnston, a Bush Jr. appointee.

Wilson had been re-elected to the legislature in 2018 as a Republican, but on December 17, 2019, he had changed his affiliation to independent. If he gets on the ballot, he will be the first independent candidate for Governor of West Virginia on the ballot since 1920.

Ironically, Governor Justice had also switched partisan affiliation after his last election. He was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but he switched to Republican on August 3, 2017.

Seamus Allen has this commentary about how Washington state’s top-two primary works in the real world. The commentary is in The Watchdog, student newspaper for Bellevue College. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.

On August 3, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg declined to give injunctive relief to the Constitution Party presidential nominee, Don Blankenship, in California. Blankenship v Newsom, n.d., 1:20cv-4479. The law required independent presidential candidates to submit 196,964 signatures. The signatures could only be gathered from mid-April through early August, which is entirely within the time affected by the health crisis.

The order says Blankenship could have tried to qualify his party, because a party gets on the ballot by registering approximately 63,000 registered members, and anyone can register to vote, or change party registration, by going on-line. This ignores the fact that in order to motivate people to change their registration, it is in practice necessary for volunteers or paid workers to go out in public and persuade people to fill out a voter registration form showing party membership in the new party. The decision also faults Blankenship for not trying to petition, but he was not nominated for president until May 2. Here is the eleven-page order.