On August 16, New York Supreme Court Justice Lawrence H. Ecker issued a 16-page ruling in Swiller v Lecuona, 2320/17.  He said that petition signatures in which the signer only wrote “W.P.” instead of “White Plains” for city are valid.  He wrote “An individual who is otherwise lawfully entitled to sign a petition in support of his/her candidate of choice should not be automatically eliminated because he or she used an obvious, common sense, unequivocal manner in which he or she demonstrated residence in White Plains.”  See page eleven.

The decision deals with other parts of the challenge to the petition.  The petitions had been filed by some candidates running in the Democratic primary for Mayor and City Council in White Plains.

A U.S. District Court in New York will hear Merced v Spano, e.d. 1:16cv-3054, on December 13, 2017.  This is the case that challenges New York state’s ban on out-of-state circulators.  It is a Libertarian Party case, filed in 2016.

The Seventh Circuit will hear Tripp v Smart, 16-3469, on Monday, September 18, at 9:30 a.m.  This is the Green Party case that challenges the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for the legislature, and also for the legislative nominees of unqualified parties.  Specifically the case challenges how the 5% petition works in districts that have no population centers.  It also challenges the requirement that every petition sheet be notarized.  The U.S. District Court had upheld all these requirements.