On November 13, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in Cowen v Raffensperger, 19-14065, in the Eleventh Circuit. This is the case that challenges the Georgia ballot access law for U.S. House.
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Josh Mahony, the only Democrat who filed to run for U.S. Senate in Arkansas in 2020, withdrew, after the filing deadline had passed. See this story. If the Democratic Party is not permitted to replace him, the only candidates on the November ballot with be the Republican incumbent and the Libertarian nominee. UPDATE: there is also an independent candidate, Dan Whitfield, who expects to collect the needed 10,000 signatures by the May 1 petition deadline. The law does not permit him to start collecting until January 1, 2020, and then he has 90 days to get his signatures.
On November 5, the California Secretary of State filed this brief in the combined cases over the constitutionality of the law requiring presidential primary candidates to reveal their income tax returns.
Here is the brief of the plaintiffs in Boydston v Padilla, a case in State Superior Court in San Bernardino that says California must print up a presidential primary ballot listing all candidates from all parties, and make that available to independent voters.
Here is the government’s brief, defending the existing law. The existing law lets each party decide for itself whether to let independent voters vote in its presidential primary. For both 2016 and 2020, the Democratic, Libertarian, and American Independent Parties are allowing independents; the Republican, Green, and Peace & Freedom Parties are not.
The case has a hearing November 19, Tuesday. UPDATE: Here is the Reply Brief of the plaintiffs, filed November 12.
On November 13, the Arkansas Secretary of State filed his reply brief in Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Thurston, 19-2503. Even though the brief is lengthy, it never mentions that when the state also lost against a 3% (of the last gubernatorial vote) petition for new parties in 1996, the state appealed to the Eighth Circuit. But a few days before the Eighth Circuit hearing, the state asked to withdraw its appeal. The Eighth Circuit agreed only on the condition that the state admit it would have lost in the Eighth Circuit if the appeal had gone ahead.
Furthermore, back then, 150 days were permitted to collect the signatures, and they weren’t due until July of the election year. Now only 90 days are permitted and they are due in September of the year before the election.
The state also continues to cite Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner for the idea that New Hampshire’s party petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote was constitutional, and therefore the Arkansas 3% should also be constitutional. The state does not say (1) that case was only about the restriction on when the petition could start; (2) New Hampshire had (and still has) much easier petition requirements for minor party nominees to appear on the ballot with the party label, aside from the 3% petition.
The state continues to say there are no precedents striking down petitions that required signatures of 3%, ignoring the Michigan Graveline case that the Libertarian Party cited in its last brief. In the 2018 Graveline case, the U.S. District Court and the Sixth Circuit enjoined the requirement for 30,000 signatures for statewide independent candidates. That requirement is less than 1% of the last vote cast. It was enjoined because it had almost never been used. Similarly, in the Arkansas case, no party has ever completed any party petition when it was in excess of 10,000 signatures.