On May 1, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Brimmer issued a 25-page order in Goodall v Williams, 1:18cv-980. The order enjoins the Secretary of State of Colorado from enforcing the state’s ban on out-of-state circulators for candidate petitions. It also puts Congressman Doug Lamborn, a Republican who is running for re-election, back on the Republican primary ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court had removed him last week because it had found that he used petitioners who were not Colorado residents. But the Colorado Supreme Court had said nothing about the constitutionality of the ban on out-of-state petitioners.

As to the state’s argument that the political parties that have primaries have a freedom of association right to limit their primary ballots to candidates who comply with the law, the order says, “The existence of competing interests does not give state legislatures license to infringe on the constitutional rights of other participants in the electoral process.”

The order notes on page 18 that there is a growing consensus from courts around the nation that bans on out-of-state circulators are unconstitutional.

On April 30, U.S. District Court Judge James Moody issued an order in Moore v Martin. The order says that the plaintiff, Mark Moore, may run as an independent candidate this year in Arkansas, providing his petition has enough valid signatures and providing Moore files the declaration of candidacy and other paperwork by May 1.

Earlier Moore had won a lawsuit against the March 1 petition deadline. But then the state argued that he should not be allowed to run this year because he had never challenged the March 1 deadline for filing candidacy paperwork. Moore responded that always before, the petition deadline and the paperwork deadline were on the same day, and it is only logical that because the petition deadline had been extended to May 1 by the court, therefore the paperwork deadline was also implicitly moved to May 1.

Moore is an independent candidate this year for State Senate.

The Federal Election Commission’s print book of 2016 election returns has been released. It has 197 pages and is called “Federal Elections 2016”. It is free to anyone who asks. It includes election returns for all federal office, primary and general. It is the most accurate reference book for election returns for 2016. The book can be ordered by calling the FEC at 800-424-9530 and choosing option #2.