The Williamsport, Pennsylvania Sun-Gazette has this story, mentioning that Jo Jorgensen is on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions. This is in response to a Libertarian Party press release sent five days ago. This is the first instance at which a daily newspaper has reported this news.
On September 18, the Texas Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in In re The Green Party of Texas, 20-0708. The 7-page opinion explains why it ordered three Green Party candidates back on the ballot, even though they had not paid a filing fee. The State Court of Appeals had removed them.
The Texas Supreme Court opinion points out that there is no deadline in the law for minor party candidates nominated at a state convention to pay the filing fee. This appears to be a flaw in the law, which was passed in great haste in 2019. So when the State Court of Appeals removed the Greens, there was no legal basis to do so, because theoretically they might still have paid the fee. The Texas Supreme Court says the Secretary of State’s regulation, saying the fee should have been paid when the candidates first indicated an interest in being nominated, is not supported by the law. That deadline is in December of the year before the election.
The Texas Supreme Court also says that if some jurisdictions have already printed ballots with the names of the Green Party nominees, then those ballots must be reprinted. The Opinion says, “We recognize that changes to the ballot at this late point in the process will require extra time and resources to be expended by our local election officials. But a candidate’s access to the ballot is an important value to our democracy. And an added expense is not a sufficient justification to deny these candidates that access.” Thanks to Art DiBianca for the link.
On the evening of September 17, the Alaska Division of Elections asked the State Supreme Court to take jurisdiction of the ballot labels case filed by Democratic U.S. House nominee Alyse Galvin. See this story.
On September 17, the Second Circuit expedited SAM Party v Kosinski, 20-3047. This is the case in which the SAM Party, which is ballot-qualified in New York, asks for injunctive relief against the state’s new definition of a political party. The briefs will be in by late November, and the oral argument will be scheduled soon after that. The SAM Party knows that it will lose its qualified party status in November 2020, because the new law requires parties to perform well in the presidential election, and the SAM Party has no presidential nominee.
The new definition was created on April 3, 2020. It requires a party to poll the greater of 130,000 votes, or 2% of the total presidential vote.
On September 17, the Virginia Supreme Court issued a two-page order in West v Wilson, 201104. It declines to hear the Kanye West ballot access appeal. West had been removed from the ballot because some of his candidates for presidential elector had charged that they had been tricked into signing up as electors.
