On August 20, Illinois filed this brief in U.S. District Court in Gill v Scholz, c.d., 3:16cv-3221. The issue is the petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House, 5% of the last vote cast.

The state’s main argument is that because the Seventh Circuit has already upheld the 5% petition for independent candidates for state house, therefore the 5% for U.S. House must also be constitutional. The glaring flaw in this argument is that Illinois requires six and one-half times as many signatures for U.S. House as it does for state house. That is because Illinois has 18 U.S. House districts, but 118 state house districts. In 2018 the average U.S. House district required 14,560 valid signatures, but the average state house petition was 2,221 valid signatures. Yet the state allows the same 90-day petitioning period for both.

The state’s brief ignores that language from several U.S. Supreme Court opinions that say the way to evaluate petition requirements is to determine how often they are used.

This Everett Herald article says there will almost surely be a recount in Washington state’s primary for U.S. House, 2nd district, to see who came in second.

A U.S. District Court Judge will hear arguments in Graveline v Johnson, e.d., 2:18cv-12354, on Wednesday, August 22. This is the case in which independent Attorney General candidate Chris Graveline challenges the Michigan independent candidate petition requirement, which requires 30,000 signatures, due several weeks before the primary.