On June 13, the New Jersey Libertarian Party state meeting decided not to run anyone for U.S. Senate in the October 16, 2013 special election. No other minor party or independent candidate seems to have announced plans to run anyone either. It is possible that the ballot will list only the Democratic and Republican nominees. Any other candidate could get on the ballot with 800 valid signatures by mid-August.
Tom Barrow, a candidate for Mayor of Detroit, is seeking a court injunction to prevent his rival, write-in candidate Mike Duggan, from even distributing literature explaining how to cast a write-in vote. Barrow claims that because Duggan is not on the ballot, therefore he also can’t be a write-in candidate. See this story.
On July 12, an Oregon State Appeals Court issued a ruling in a case that challenges a state law that says no one may simultaneously be a volunteer petitioner for one initiative, while being paid to get signatures on another initiative. See this story. The Court said the issue is moot.
On July 11, the Michigan State Appeals Court ruled in Wilcoxon v City of Detroit Election Commission, 317012, that signatures on nominating petitions are valid even if the signer fails to enter the date of signing. The decision says that the circulator is free to add the date. Here is the 12-page opinion. This opinion is similar to one won in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
Eliot Spitzer, seeking the Democratic nomination for New York City Comptroller, needed 3,750 valid signatures of registered Democrats by July 11. Since he started getting signatures only five days before the deadline, his campaign paid petitioners $800 per day. New York state election law forbids paying petitioners on a per-signature basis. See this story, written by a college student who helped collect the signatures. The student reports that he collected over 200 signatures in his two days of work.
The Spitzer campaign submitted approximately 27,000 signatures on the deadline. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
