On July 22, the Ninth Circuit denied injunctive relief in the Arizona Democratic Party’s lawsuit on order of candidates on Arizona general election ballots. Macinas v Hobbs, 20-16301. Without relief, in almost all of Arizona’s counties, the Republican Party nominees will be on the top line. The case remains alive but will be decided after the 2020 election. The Democratic Party had asked for an order, requiring a random drawing to determine the top line.
This news story about minor party and independent candidate filing in Illinois reveals that Kanye West’s petition had 4,120 signatures. The requirement is 2,500.
The illinois State Board of Elections website early this morning listed Don Blankenship of the Constitution Party as a presidential candidate. Then his name was deleted. But, now (as of Tuesday evening, July 21) it is back again. Thanks to the commenters who pointed this out.
The Maine Republican Party does not accept the Secretary of State’s determination that the referendum petition to freeze ranked-choice voting for president didn’t have at least 63,067 valid signatures. The party is double-checking all the rejected signatures and will appeal, either administratively, and if that doesn’t work, in court.
On July 21, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee, an Obama appointee, denied ballot access relief to Joseph Kishore, presidential nominee of the Socialist Equality Party. Kishore v Newsom, c.d., 2:20cv-5859.
The lawsuit challenged the California independent procedure as applied to the health crisis, because the entire petitioning period is within the time when the health crisis has been upon us. The law requires 196,964 signatures to be collected from April 24 to August 7. The twelve-page order says the plaintiff should have ignored the independent petition procedure and instead tried to qualify his party. That takes approximately 68,000 registered party members. The decision says that the new party procedure can be used safely, because Californians can register to vote on-line, or can change their party affiliation on-line.
The decision also says that hundreds of thousands of signatures have been collected for initiatives in California in the last seven months, but does not acknowledge the evidence that the overwhelming majority of such signatures were collected before the health crisis began. The decision does not mention the California state court ruling that extended the petitioning period for initiatives. Kishore will appeal.
