On September 1, U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Dorsey upheld Nevada’s June petition deadline for unqualified parties to submit a petition for ballot access. Nevada Green Party v Cegavske, 2:16cv-1951.

The decision acknowledges that in 1992, another U.S. District Court Judge in Nevada enjoined the June 10 deadline. The current deadline is June 3. But Judge Dorsey said the 1992 precedent doesn’t apply because back then, the petition requirement was 3%, and nowadays it is 1%. This is an erroneous conclusion of law. Early petition deadlines for presidential independent candidate are unconstitutional no matter how few signatures are required. This is obvious, because in Anderson v Celebrezze, Ohio’s independent petition deadline was too early, even though the number of signatures was only one-tenth of 1% of the last presidential vote cast, and was only eight-hundredths of 1% of the number of registered voters. That percentage is mentioned in the U.S. District Court decision in Anderson v Celebrezze.

Judge Dorsey mentioned that the Ninth Circuit had struck down Arizona’s independent petition deadline in 2008, and Arizona’s petition deadline was later than Nevada’s deadline. But she wrote that in Arizona, few independent candidates for president ever qualified, whereas in Nevada, the Libertarian and Independent American Parties are on the ballot. But the Libertarian and Independent American Parties have not had to petition since 1986 (in the case of the Libertarians) and even earlier for the IAP, so that is irrelevant. Judge Dorsey also mentioned that the Green Party was on the ballot in Nevada in the past.

Judge Dorsey did not mention that June petition deadlines have been invalidated in South Dakota, Alaska, and Kansas. However, the latter two were unpublished opinions. UPDATE: here is a news story about the decision, although it doesn’t explain the lawsuit very well.

On September 1, all the full-time judges of the Sixth Circuit released an order concerning Michigan’s straight-ticket device and whether it should be on the ballot this year. By 9-6, the judges voted not to disturb the device this year. Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson, 16-2115. Thanks to Bill Hall and Rick Hasen for this news. The case is still alive and will get further along after the election is over.

The Independent Party is a ballot-qualified in Connecticut for all statewide offices except President. In this year’s U.S. Senate race, two factions of the party support different candidates for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination. If they can’t agree, the Secretary of State won’t print anyone on the November ballot as the party’s nominee, and then it will lose its ballot status for the office of U.S. Senate for the 2018 election.

The two major party nominees are incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal, and Republican Dan Carter. One faction of the Independent Party wants to also nominate Dan Carter, so that he would be on the November ballot twice, under both the Republican label and the Independent label. This faction of the party is centered in Danbury, where the Mayor is an Independent Party leader even though he is a registered Republican.

The other faction, centered in Waterbury, wants the Independent Party to run its own nominee for U.S. Senate, John R. Price, who is not the nominee of any other party. See this story.

In 2012 the Independent Party nominated Rocky Anderson for President (who was the Justice Party nominee around the remainder of the U.S.). But in the 2012 U.S. Senate race, the Independent Party nominated the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Linda McMahon. Anderson and McMahon had very little in common politically, but that showed the two factions of the Independent Party, at least in 2012, were able to get along with each other. Thanks to Joshua Van Vranken for the link.