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.

On July 21, the Third Circuit expedited the minor party ballot access lawsuit, Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania v Wolf, 20-2481. This is the case in which the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties ask for ballot access relief due to the health crisis. The U.S. District Court had denied all relief and had even written there is a state interest in keeping minor parties off the ballot so that the voters can concentrate to a larger extent on the major party nominees.

Here is the opening brief filed by the parties. The state’s response is due July 24; the reply brief is due July 26.

On July 20, U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett, a Bush Jr. appointee, cut the number of signatures for Maryland independent candidates by 50%. Ivey v Lamone, 1:20cv-1995. Here is the three-page order. The state agreed to this outcome.

The plaintiff, Amber Ivey, is an independent candidate for U.S. House, 7th district. The original requirement for her was 5,067, but now she needs 2,534 signatures. The deadline is August 3.