On August 11, both sides in the lawsuit Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates ask U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer to correct one of the errors in her August 5 opinion. The opinion said that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were alleging that in 2012, President Obama and Mitt Romney themselves decided on the 15% polling threshold. Both sides want the opinion revised to delete this allegation. The 15% rule has always been the product of the Commission itself.

The two sides did not ask Judge Collyer to alter any of her factual errors about which minor party and independent presidential candidates have been on the ballot in states containing a majority of the electoral college. Her opinion omitted Ralph Nader for 2004, but erroneously included Virgil Goode for 2012.

On August 11, Rocky De La Fuente, independent presidential candidate, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Georgia law that requires petitioning candidates for president to submit the names of their presidential elector candidates on July 1, even though the petition itself (which would have a list of the electors in any event) is not due until July 12. De La Fuente v Kemp, n.d., 1:16cv-2937. It is assigned to Judge Mark H. Cohen, an Obama appointee.

De La Fuente submitted twice as many signatures as needed, but the state has said the petition is invalid because the names of the electors weren’t turned in by July 1. The Constitution Party of Georgia had also failed to submit the names of their presidential elector candidates. When they realized this, they gave up on the petition.

August 10 is the Tennessee deadline for a new party to submit a petition for recognition. No group filed such a petition. This is not surprising, because the law requires 33,816 valid signatures. No group has successfully petitioned for party status in Tennessee since the American Party did so in 1968.

A U.S. District Court is expected to rule in the next week on whether the Tennessee party petition procedure is unconstitutionally difficult.