On the evening of July 10, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. McShane granted ballot access relief for Oregon statewide initiatives. The order was issued orally and is not yet in writing. Oregon statewide initiatives this year needed almost 150,000 valid signatures by early July. The plaintiffs have collected 64,000 signatures. They want more time and a lower petition requirement. The judge said he will grant relief, but he wants the Secretary of State to propose some relief by Monday, July 13. See this story. The case is People Not Politicians v Clarno, 6:20cv-1053.

This is the third state inside the Ninth Circuit in which a U.S. District Court has granted ballot access relief to initiatives. The others are in Idaho and Nevada. The Nevada Secretary of State is not appealing, but the Idaho Secretary of State is appealing. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news.

On July 10, U.S. District Court Judge John W. Sedwick issued a one-page order, predicting that he will deny relief to the Alaska Libertarian Party for its presidential petition. His order says the party has not been petitioning in a few of Alaska’s population centers, and also that the party has not been postally mailing petition blanks to most party registrants. He said he is issuing the order now, before finally making up his mind, so that the party can be on notice and can be continuing to petition.

The Alaska Libertarian Party presidential petition is probably two-thirds finished, and is not due until August 5. It requires 3,212 signatures.

On July 8, the Seventh Circuit issued a short opinion, saying the U.S. District Court was correct to deny ballot access injunctive relief to an Illinois statewide initiative. Morgan v White, 20-1801. The decision points out that Illinois allows 18 months to collect signatures.