On May 18, the Seventh Circuit expedited the case over whether initiative petitions in Illinois should get petitioning relief. The case was originally called Morgan v White, but in the Seventh Circuit it is Committee for the Illinois Democracy Act v White, 20-1801. The briefs are mostly due in June, but the final one is due July 6.
The U.S. District Court had rejected the case. The plaintiffs had asked for reconsideration, but that was rejected May 18.
On May 20, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence G. Berg slightly expanded the type of Michigan primary candidates who can benefit from his April ruling easing ballot access. The April ruling cut the number of signatures needed to get on the primary ballot and eased the deadline, but it was limited to candidates who had established a candidate committee (if they were running for Michigan state or local office) by March 10. The new order eliminates that requirement.
The new order was issued because a new intervenor in the original case, Shakira Hawkins, a candidate for Wayne County Circuit Court Judge, explained that she had gathered the statutorily required number of signatures, but she needed deadline relief. She couldn’t qualify for the deadline relief issued in April because she hadn’t filed a candidate committee by March 10. The new order eliminates the March 10 qualification. The new order will probably affect only a handful of candidates. It extends the petition deadline to May 22. Esshaki v Whitmer, e.d., 2:20cv-10831. Thanks to Thomas Jones and Rick Hasen for this news.
On May 21, the Peace & Freedom Party of California executive committee said that it had surveyed the state central committee, and knows that a majority support Gloria La Riva for President and Leonard Peltier for vice-president. La Riva had won the party’s presidential primary on March 3.
This story describes the third general election debate of 1960, in which Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were in different states at the time of their debate. The story says that the remote format worked quite well.
This Montana news story says the state Green Party disavows most of the candidates running for congress or state office in its own primary. If Montana law allowed new or small qualified parties to nominate by convention, this problem would not exist. The problem is made worse by the fact that Montana has an open primary. Any registered voter can pay a filing fee to get on the primary ballot of any party.
