On August 24, two U.S. House candidates of the Illinois Green Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, in the Southern District, against the notarization requirement for each petition sheet, and the 5% petition requirement in combination with the 90-day limit for collecting those signatures. A typical U.S. House district in Illinois requires the nominee of an unqualified party to submit 14,000 valid signatures. The case also says that the requirement is particularly harsh in districts without a major population center, or districts in which the largest population center is bisected between two districts.

The case is Tripp v Smart, 14-cv-890. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Michael Reagan, a Clinton appointee.

On August 13, at the end of oral argument, U.S. District Court Judge John Tharp said he will issue a ruling on injunctive relief in Summers v Smart on Thursday, August 21, at 9:30 a.m. This is the Illinois Green Party ballot access lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the challenge process to the Illinois Libertarian statewide petition is completely over, but election officials say they won’t issue a decision as to whether the Libertarian slate should be on the ballot until August 22. It is not known if the delay in the Libertarian decision is related to the timing of events in the Green Party case or not. Although the Libertarian Party showed in the binder check process that approximately 33,000 signatures are valid (25,000 are required), the challengers are now trying to invalidate all the work of certain Libertarian circulators.

On August 12, a Michigan state court ruled when an individual signs the same petition twice, the state law striking both signatures violates the U.S. Constitution. In re City of Benton Harbor Mayoral Recall Election, Berrien County 2014-0117. The opinion finds that some individuals, in good faith, sign a petition a second time because they don’t remember if they already signed it or not.

The Secretary of State had filed a brief in support of the restriction. As a result of the decision, a recall petition for the Mayor of Benton Harbor now has enough valid signatures. Thanks to John Anthony LaPietra for the news.