On April 9, an independent candidate for U.S. House in Ohio, filed a state court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the petition requirement of 1% of the last vote cast, due in March. Tjaden v Geauga County Board of Elections, Court of Common Pleas, Geauga County. Here is the Complaint
On April 9, the California State Appeals Court, third district, issued an opinion in Weber v Superior Court, B324576. This is the case over whether Vince Fong could run for both U.S. House and Assembly in the March 5, 2024 election. The Appeals Court agreed with the Superior Court, and said there is no law in California stopping simultaneous filings. Here is the Opinion. Thanks to Eric Wong for the news.
New York state has the shortest window (42 days) for presidential petitions in the general election of any state. It starts April 16, one week from today. Here is a news story, which focuses on Libertarian Party preparations. This is the first presidential election in which the requirement is 45,000 signatures. It was 15,000 signatures starting in 1992, until the requirement was increased in 2020, but then eased in 2020 only due to covid.
Although Minnesota and Rhode Island have even shorter windows for non-presidential independent candidates, those two states have longer windows for independent presidential candidates.
on April 8, three Republicans running for U.S. House in New Jersey, and one running for U.S. Senate, filed a state court lawsuit to get the same non-discriminatory ballot format that Democratic primary voters will be using, in the June 4 primary. Maia-Cusick v Sollami-Covelho, Mercer County Superior Court, Mer-L-677-24. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Democracy Docket for the link.
North Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House on a government-printed ballot. But in 2024, Shelane Etchison appears to have qualified in the Ninth District. Here is her website. She needed 7,460 valid signatures and the county election boards have verified 7,532. UPDATE: see this story.
The Ninth District is in central North Carolina, just west of Raleigh. It has a first-term Republican incumbent, Richard Hudson. He is running for re-election. In 2022 he won the general election in a two-person race with 56.5%.
