On July 27, U.S. District Court Judge Philip M. Halpern, a Trump appointee, refused to give injunctive relief to an independent congressional candidate and an independent state senate candidate. Eisen v Cuomo, s.d., 7:20cv-5121. Here is the one-page order. It does not explain why the judge declined to lower the petition requirements. Governor Cuomo had already reduced the number for U.S. House from 3,500 to 2,450.
An objection has been filed to the validity of Kanye West’s New Jersey petition. See this story. The objector claims there are fewer than 800 valid signatures, even though it contains more than 1,300 raw signatures.
On July 28, the Third Circuit refused any ballot access relief for minor party and independent candidates. Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania v Governor, 20-2481. The order is only two pages and does not mention any precedents from other courts or other states. It says the statewide petition was already reduced “by more than 90%” in a 2018 lawsuit, Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele. That is an untrue statement. The Constitution Party court order only reduced the statewide petitions, not the district petitions, and it went from 20,601 signatures for 2012, and 16,625 signatures for 2014, to 5,000 for elections starting in 2016. Furthermore the Constitution Party lawsuit was in 2016, not 2018.
The decision’s author is not indicated, but the order is signed by Judge Thomas Ambro (a Clinton appointee), Patty Shwartz (Obama), and Stephanos Bibas (Trump). As a result, it is extremely unlikely that any statewide Pennsylvania petition will succeed this year, except that the Libertarian statewide petition will probably qualify. There is an outside chance that Kanye West may be petitioning in Pennsylvania. He seems to have the financial resources to compete a 5,000-signature petition at the last minute. The petitions are due August 3, Monday.
Here is a news story about the July 28 decision that gave ballot access relief to New Hampshire minor party and independent candidates. The news story does not mention that New Hampshire does not allow stand-ins on presidential petitions. This is relevant because the Libertarian Party could not have been petitioning for president in New Hampshire until after its national convention in late May.
On July 28, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante, a Bush Jr. appointee, issued an order in Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner, 1:20cv-688. Due to the health crisis, he cut the number of signatures to 65% of the normal 3,000 (for statewide office). The 2020 requirement is thus 1,950. Here is the 51-page opinion.
This is the first ballot access lawsuit ever won by a minor party or independent candidate in New Hampshire. New Hampshire had been the only state in which a ballot access lawsuit filed by a minor party or independent candidate had never won. This sentence relates to lawsuits over the constitutionality of the state law, or the validity of the state law under the federal Voting Rights Act.
