On the afternoon of August 19, Evan McMullin and Chris Keniston filed to be on the Louisiana presidential ballot. McMullin’s ballot label will be “Courage Character Service”. Keniston is the Veterans’ Party presidential nominee, but he chose this label: “Unity Security Opportunity”.
On August 19, the Sixth Circuit directed opponents of Michigan’s straight-ticket device to file a brief by Tuesday, August 23, in the case over whether the device should be on the ballot this year. The case is Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson, 16-2115.
On August 18, the Federal Election Commission announced that it will take action against persons who file forms FEC 1 or FEC 2, if the FEC suspects that the filings are for fake names. See this FEC press release. Forms 1 and 2 are so short and simple, many persons have started filing them using fictitious names.
August 19 is the Louisiana deadline for qualified parties, and also independent presidential candidates and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, to file presidential elector candidates. On August 19, Jill Stein and Darrell Castle filed. As of this moment there are eleven presidential candidates set in Louisiana. With two hours to go, there is still no filing by Rocky De La Fuente, Evan McMullin, or Jim Hedges. Many campaigns have been having difficulty with the Louisiana filing because this week’s floods have forced many residents to flee their homes, and it is diffiult for some presidential elector candidates to sign, notarize and deliver candidacy forms.
On August 17, U.S. District Court Judge Mark H. Cohen, an Obama appointee in Georgia, directed attorneys for Georgia to respond by August 23 in De La Fuente v Kemp, n.d., 1:16cv-2937. The issue is the constitutionality of the law that requires petitioning groups for president to file their presidential elector candidates with the state several weeks before the petition itself is due. Georgia does not print the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot. Presidential petitions contain the names of the presidential elector candidates, so De La Fuente argues that there is no state interest in requiring him to have submitted the names before the petition itself was due. A somewhat similar law in Arizona was overcome by the Green Party earlier this year.
On August 18, U.S. District Court Judge Sue E. Myerscough, an Obama appointee in Illinois, expedited the lawsuit Gill v Scholz, c.d., 3:16cv-3221. The state’s brief is due August 22, and a hearing is set for August 24 at 1:30 p.m. in Springfield.
The issue is the Illinois 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House. The plaintiff, David Gill, an independent candidate in the 13th district, submitted over 11,000 signatures. He needed 10,754, but he was challenged and it was determined that only 8,593 signatures are valid. He is charging that the 5% petition for U.S. House is so restrictive in practice that it is extremely rare for any candidate for U.S. House to ever get that many valid signatures.
Only four states require an independent for U.S. House to submit as many as 10,000 signatures. They are Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. No one has ever complied with the Georgia requirement or the South Carolina requirement since those states have required as many as 10,000 signatures. No one has ever complied with the North Carolina requirement either, except in 2010 when a petition for Wendell Fant was submitted. The petition effort had been organized by the Service Employees International Union, which employed an army of petitioners to get the job done, although once the petition had been approved, Fant refused to run, so his name did not appear on the ballot.
