On August 12, the Nevada Secretary of State said that the Green Party petition, which had been handed in on the June 3 deadline, did not have enough valid signatures. Clark County (where most of the signatures had been obtained) had made a similar ruling in late June. It is possible the Green Party will sue to overturn the June 3 petition deadline. The party submitted 1,200 more signatures after that deadline.
In 1992 a U.S. District Court had enjoined the deadline that was in effect back then, which was June 10. The legislature had then moved the deadline from June to July. But years later, the legislature move it to April, and then last year moved it to June.
On August 12, a West Virginia state court heard arguments in a case over whether independent candidate Erik Wells can be an independent candidate for County Clerk of Kanawha County. See this story. Wells is a registered Democrat. There is no law in West Virginia saying only independent voters may run as independent candidates. But persons attempting to keep Wells off the ballot still maintain that he can’t be an independent.
Wells’ opponents also say that only independent voters can sign for an independent candidate, but, again, there is no such law. Wells’ opponents seem to think that an independent candidate is the same as a member of a political party, and that the group of independent voters should be treated as a political party.
The Sixth Circuit has asked proponents of a straight-ticket device to file a brief by Monday, August 15, in the lawsuit over whether the U.S. Constitution requires Michigan to have a straight-ticket device. The U.S. District Court had ruled that Michigan cannot repeal the device because removing the device injures black voters. The case is Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson.
Another pending Michigan ballot access lawsuit that must be settled before ballots are printed is the case in state court, over whether the marijuana initiative has enough valid signatures. The initiative does have enough valid signatures (almost certainly) if all their signatures may be submitted. But the state rejected some of the signatures because they had been collected outside the 6-month window. The 6-month window was not actually in the law when the proponents started collecting their signatures; it was a regulation only. But the legislature passed a law setting the 6-month limit after the petition began to circulate.
August 12 is the California deadline for independent candidate petitions. Because California has a top-two system, independents may no longer petition to get on the November ballot, except for President. The statewide petition requires 178,039 signatures. No one submitted such a petition, except that Rocky De La Fuente submitted approximately 2,000 signatures. He is suing California in federal court over the deadline and the number of signatures. No one has completed the California independent presidential petition since 1992. De La Fuente is the first presidential candidate to challenge the California independent petition, which was written in 1976. The law before 1976 was even more difficult, and Gus Hall, the Communist Party presidential nominee, challenged the old law in 1972 and got the law improved somewhat.
