On December 6, the Seventh Circuit issued a favorable procedural ruling in Gill v Scholz, the case over the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, for U.S. House. The state had tried to persuade the Seventh Circuit to terminate the case in the U.S. District Court, but the Seventh Circuit declined to do that.

The case now is before the U.S. District Court for a decision as to whether the 5% petition requirement, combined with the 90-day petitioning period, is too severe. It is fairly likely that the U.S. District Court Judge will grant declaratory relief, because on August 25, 2016, she had enjoined the law and said it is probably unconstitutional. Afterwards the Seventh Circuit had blocked the plaintiff-candidate, David Gill, from being put on the ballot, but said nothing about the merits of the issue.

The Delaware State News, the daily newspaper for Dover, has this story about presidential write-ins in Delaware this year. The story reveals the number of write-ins cast for individuals who did not file a write-in declaration of candidacy. Very likely, a large share of those votes, perhaps a majority, were for Bernie Sanders, although the newspaper does not mention him.

Georgia held a partisan statewide election for Public Service Commissioner last month. Only two candidates were on the ballot, a Republican and a Libertarian. The Libertarian, Eric Hoskins, polled 1,200,076 votes, 33.42%. He carried Clayton County with 69.3% of the vote, and DeKalb County with 59.8% of the vote. Here is a link to the election returns for that office.

It is absurd that a party that polls that many votes is still not considered a qualified party for U.S. House, state legislative, and county partisan offices.