U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., an Obama appointee, will hear Libertarian Party of Virginia v Virginia State Board of Elections on Monday, July 13, at 9 a.m. This is the lawsuit over ballot access relief for minor party and independent petitioning candidates, in connection with the health crisis.
On June 25, the Independent Party, and the Party for Socialism & Liberation, filed this opening brief in the Eleventh Circuit, in their Florida ballot access case. They are trying to get their presidential nominees on the Florida ballot. They are both ballot-qualified, but because the Federal Election Commission doesn’t recognize them as national committees, they can’t be on for president unless they submit 132,781 signatures by July 15.
The U.S. District Court seemed to feel the FEC provision discriminates, but also seemed to feel the 132,781 signature requirement is constitutional, even though the Eleventh Circuit already struck down Georgia’s presidential petition, which required 51,845 signatures in 2012, the year the Georgia case was filed. The U.S. District Court said the difference is that Florida allows four years to get the signatures, whereas Georgia only required six months. That is not a very meaningful difference. Many courts have determined that it is difficult to petition far in advance of an election; neither potential signers, nor potential circulators, are as interested that far in the future. UPDATE: on June 25 the Eleventh Circuit expedited the case.
According to this New York Post story, in at least one precinct in Queens Borough, New York, 845 votes were recorded in a contest in the SAM Party primary on June 23, even though the SAM Party does not permit anyone but registered members to vote in its primaries, and it doesn’t have that many registrations in New York city. Thanks to Frank Morano for the link.
As of mid-morning on June 25, Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t issued any order in Thompson v Dewine, 19A1054. This is the case over whether the health crisis justifies some petitioning relief for Ohio statewide initiatives. The U.S. District Court had granted relief, but the Sixth Circuit had reversed that. All the briefs have been before the U.S. Supreme Court since mid-day, June 22, Monday.
It appears the only full U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued, or to be issued, on June 25, is an immigration case. Probably next week will see the presidential elector cases.
On June 24, U.S. District Court Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo, an Obama appointee, dismissed the lawsuit Bruni v Hughs, s.d., 5:20cv-35. This is the case in which the Texas Democratic Party tried to persuade the court to restore the straight-ticket device that the legislature repealed in 2018.
The order says the plaintiffs lack standing. They had argued that without the straight-ticket device, voters would spend more time in the voting booth, leading to longer lines of people waiting to vote. The decision says that is speculative and the Democrats have no concrete injury. Thanks to Linda Curtis for the link.
