On July 31, Paul Panepinto, independent candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, filed approximately 28,000 signatures to be on the November 3, 2015 ballot. He is the first petitioning candidate for that office since 1993. The requirement is slightly more than 16,000 signatures. The requirement would be higher, except the 1993 petitioning candidate, Robert Surrick, won a lawsuit in 1993 to lower the number of signatures for statewide judicial candidates who petition in odd years.

Given the victory against the Pennsylvania system for checking signatures on July 24, it will be interesting to see if anyone challenges Panepinto’s petition. The victory in court on July 24, 2015, only applies to Constitution, Green, and Libertarian petitions.

This news story says Drew Curtis, an independent running for Governor of Kentucky in the November 3, 2015 election, already has 6,000 signatures. The deadline is August 11. He needs 5,000 and says he expects to have at least 8,500 by the deadline.

Another independent candidate, who changed his name to Gatewood Galbraith, only as 2,000 signatures so far.

The only ballot-qualified parties in Kentucky are the Democratic and Republican Parties. The only other ballot-qualified parties Kentucky has had in the last 90 years have been the American Party 1968-1972, the Anderson Coalition Party 1980-1984, and the Reform Party 1996-2000. Kentucky is the only state in which the only office that counts toward party status is President. The law requires 2%, which sounds easy but is not, because it is so rare for any party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties to poll 2% for President.

This Philadelphia Inquirer editorial applauds the court decision of July 24 that struck down the state’s ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates. The editorial urges the state not to appeal.