On September 30, the Michigan Libertarian Party filed this cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson. The issue is whether sore loser laws in Michigan and nationally can be applied to presidential primaries. The Michigan Secretary of State wouldn’t put Gary Johnson on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee last year because his name had appeared on the Michigan Republican presidential primary, held in January 2012. Johnson’s name was on the Republican presidential primary ballots in 7 other states in 2012, but no other state kept him off the general election ballot for that reason.

UPDATE: the case number is 13-421.

On September 30, the U.S. Government sued North Carolina, alleging that four election laws passed earlier this year violate the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Voting Rights Act. The case is U.S.A. v The State of North Carolina, middle district, N.C., 13-cv-861. Here is the complaint.

The case concerns (1) few early voting days; (2) elimination of the ability of unregistered individuals to register at the early voting location just prior to voting; (3) new restrictions on provisional ballots; (4) the law requiring one of seven types of government photo-ID for voters voting at the polls. The lawsuit asks that North Carolina be placed under Section Three of the Voting Rights Act, a little-used portion of the Act that says states with a history of voting rights violations cannot make further election law changes without pre-clearance. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On September 30, Alabama filed this 4-page brief in Hall v Bennett, the case over whether the ballot access requirements in the December 17, 2013 special U.S. House elections should be adjusted, due to a much shorter petitioning time than in normal circumstances. The state’s brief says nothing about the numerous federal court decisions that ruled that when the petitioning period is much shorter than normal, either the number of signatures should be reduced, or the deadline should be extended.

The state is requiring 5,938 valid signatures by September 24. Normally the petitioning period for an independent candidate is, in effect, two years, because the state has no limit on when a petition may begin to circulate. In this special election, though, it was not possible to petition until June 29, when the state waived the usual rule that the date of the election must be printed on the petition. The date of the election itself was not set until July 29.

The plaintiff, James Hall, an independent candidate, did submit 2,835 signatures by the deadline. No other petitioning candidate submitted any petition.