Ed Forchion, an independent candidate for U.S. House in New Jersey’s 3rd district, was ruled off the ballot after his petition was challenged. He needed 100 valid signatures. He submitted 200. But his petition was challenged, and election administrators determined that he had only 99 valid signatures. He appealed to Superior Court in June, but was told that he must go to the State Appeals Court.

However, the State Appeals Court won’t hear his case unless he pays $3,500 for a transcript of the proceedings before election officials. See this story.

Forchion says that he should be on the ballot because: (1) he does have 100 valid signatures; (2) if he doesn’t, it is because election officials gave him a map of the district that had errors in it; (3) regardless of all that, the law says challenges are due four days after the petition is submitted, but the Democratic Party official who challenged his petition didn’t object until six days; (4) furthermore the challenge was faxed, and that is not a permissible means for a challenge to be filed.

See this story for an update on the Florida state court lawsuit over the boundaries of the state’s U.S. House districts. A decision is expected in the new few days on what will be done about the fact that on July 10, the boundaries of some of the districts were ruled unlawful.

On July 29, U.S. District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell set a hearing for July 31, at 10 a.m., in courtroom 15B, for Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, eastern district, 2:14cv-3299. The hearing is at the U.S. District Courthouse in Philadelphia. The Green and Libertarian Parties will present witnesses and will argue for an injunction on these issues: (1) the ban on out-of-state circulators; (2) the notarization requirement; (3) the rule against mixing signatures from residents of different counties on the same sheet, given that the state has its own statewide database of registered voters; (4) the requirement that each petition signer include the year in the “date signed” column; (5) whether the election law, read by its plain words, means that anyone eligible to register to vote (and not just registered voters) may sign petitions. Thanks to Bill Redpath for this news. Bill Redpath, who has collected tens of thousands of signatures for the Libertarian Party in many states, and who wants to work in Pennsylvania (even though he is a Virginia resident) will be one of the witnesses.