On September 26, an Illinois state appeals court put Tyler Oberkfell back on the ballot as an independent for Madison County Board. See this story.
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Last year when Jill Stein tried to crash the first general election presidential debate, she was arrested and kept in handcuffs for eight hours. This time, according to this story, she was merely “escorted out.”
On September 26, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied Dr. Sam Gill’s request to be put back on the ballot, as an independent, in the Illinois U.S. House 13th district.
This year, there are eighteen presidential candidates who are on the ballot in at least two states. One of them is independent Mike Smith, who lives in Colorado but who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Because of his Knoxville connection, the Knoxville News-Sentinel has this story about him.
Independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente collected enough valid signatures to be on the Washington ballot, but he was kept off because his campaign didn’t file a notice in a newspaper a week before the petition drive started. The newspaper requirement is a hangover from the days when Washington ballot access was not based on petitions, but on attracting a minimum number of voters to a meeting. The lawsuit argues that the requirement is obsolete, especially since the state now permits “meetings” in which circulators ask open-air passersby to sign.
The case is De La Fuente v Wyman, w.d., 3:16cv-5801. It has a hearing Monday, September 26, at 3 p.m. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, a Bush Jr. appointee.