On June 10, Michael Collier, an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor, filed a federal lawsuit against the law that only gives him 30 days to collect 81,030 signatures. Normally independent candidates in Texas have 113 days to collect signatures. However, the law says if the office has a primary run-off, signatures can’t be collected until the day after the run-off. Collier v Nelson, w.d., 1:26cv-1574. Here is the Complaint.
On June 12, the Kansas Board of Objections affirmed the Secretary of State’s decision to remove the No Labels Party from the ballot. See this story. It is unclear if the No Labels Party will now revive its lawsuit. The lawsuit had earlier been dismissed as having been filed too early.
Starting on Saturday, June 13, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website lets voters sign petitions for minor party and independent candidates on-line. See this link.
A U.S. District Court judge will hear Libertarian National Committee v Libertarian Party of New Mexico, 1:26cv-1562, on Monday, June 15, at 1:30 p.m. It is a zoom hearing.
On June 12, New Jersey Secretary of State removed an independent candidate for U.S. House from the ballot even though the candidate had won before an Administrative Law Judge earlier. The candidate, Vincent Matrisciano, had prepared his own blank petition forms instead of using the forms provided by the Secretary of State. See this story. The home-made petition omitted language that said the signer supports the candidate named on the petition. Ironically, that type of language has been declared unconstitutional in decisions some other states, including Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia.
