On July 24, Joshua Eisen and Gary Greenberg filed this reply brief in Eisen v Cuomo, s.d., 7:20cv-5121. This is the case that challenges the New York petition requirement for U.S. House and State Senate. Although the Governor cut the number of signatures down to 70% of normal on June 30, the plaintiffs say that is not enough relief, given the health crisis. They also argue in favor of allowing electronic signatures.

Page ten of the brief lists the eight states that do allow electronic signatures this year for the first time: Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Utah.

This Patch story says Kanye West’s campaign paid circulators $10 per signature, in Illinois. As far as is known, Illinois is the only state in which West has filed a ballot access petition. It has been challenged and it may take a few weeks to adjudicate that challenge.

On July 23, Joseph Kishore, the Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate, filed this brief in the Sixth Circuit in his Michigan ballot access case. Kishore v Whitmer, 20-1661. He wants to be on the ballot as an independent candidate, which requires 12,000 signatures, to be collected from mid-January to mid-July. He argues that the health crisis made this impossible. No statewide independent candidate petitions were submitted by anyone in Michigan this year. The U.S. District Court had denied him relief on July 8.