On July 23, Joseph Kishore, the Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate, filed this brief in the Sixth Circuit in his Michigan ballot access case. Kishore v Whitmer, 20-1661. He wants to be on the ballot as an independent candidate, which requires 12,000 signatures, to be collected from mid-January to mid-July. He argues that the health crisis made this impossible. No statewide independent candidate petitions were submitted by anyone in Michigan this year. The U.S. District Court had denied him relief on July 8.

The Connecticut Libertarian Party ballot access case is pending in the Second Circuit. Libertarian Party of Connecticut v Lamont, 20-2179. The case includes a mixture of issues related to petitioning in the health crisis, and issues that are separate. On July 24 the Secretary of State asked the Second Circuit not to expedite the case. See the state’s brief here.

On April 2, 2020, the New York ballot access law drastically changed. The number of signatures for a statewide independent, or the nominee of an unqualified party, was raised from 15,000 to 45,000 signatures. The vote test was changed from 50,000 for Governor, to a requirement that a party pass the vote test every two years, for the office at the top of the ticket (president in some years, governor in the other election years). The number of votes went to the greater of 130,000 or 2% of the vote cast.

The Working Families Party then sued to overturn the new requirements. Here is the party’s reply reply brief, filed July 24.