On June 1, Ohio proponents of an initiative filed this reply brief in Thompson v DeWine, 20-3526. This is the case over ballot access relief. The U.S. District Court had granted relief, but the Sixth Circuit had reversed. The proponents have been seeking rehearing en banc.
On June 3, the Eleventh Circuit issued a 20-page opinion in Cowen v Georgia Secretary of State, 19-14065. It remands the case back to the U.S. District Court, and tells that Court to re-hear the case, this time evaluating the evidence. This case challenges the petition requirements for minor party nominees for U.S. House. The U.S. District Court had upheld them despite the evidence, believing that the 1971 Jenness v Fortson decision required that result. The Eleventh Circuit disagrees. The Eleventh Circuit says that there is an equal protection problem with the Georgia law that had not existed in 1971. Furthermore, when Jenness v Fortson was decided, there had been successful uses of the statewide petition in each of the two elections before Jenness had been filed. But in this case, there are no successful uses of the 5% petition for U.S. House since 1964, and none ever for a minor party candidate.
The decision is by Judge R. Lanier Anderson, and also signed by Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Adalberto Jordan.
The District of Columbia held its primaries on June 2. Here are the unofficial results. The Green Party presidential primary had no candidates listed. The Libertarian Party did not participate in the presidential primary.
Roll Call has this in-depth report on the federal law on how Congress is supposed to count electoral votes when various officials in a particular state submit two sets of returns that conflict with each other. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.
Montana held primaries on June 2 for the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties. The Libertarian Party is also on the ballot, but it had no contests so the state didn’t print Libertarian primary ballots.
The Green Party primary for U.S. Senate had two candidates, Wendie Fredrickson and Dennis Daneke. The Montana Green Party considers both of them non-members and didn’t want to have any nominee for Senate. Fredrickson won the primary by two-to-one. It is thought that Fredrickson is a sympathizer of the Republican Party, and it is known that Daneke is a supporter of the Democratic Party. Daneke had said if he won the primary, he would withdraw, because he supports the Democratic nominee. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s website, showing the election returns.
