According to this news story, on May 14, the 3-judge U.S. District Court hearing Somers v South Carolina Election Commission orally ruled after the hearing that no relief can be granted to the candidates left off the June 12 primary ballot. Almost 200 candidates were kept off Democratic and Republican primary ballots (for state legislature and local partisan office) because of confusion over the deadline for filing a Statement of Economic Interests.

The story also says, at the bottom, that a group called “Operation Lost Vote” will help these candidates to collect signatures to get on the ballot as independents. The petitions are due in mid-July. They are very stringent, and require signatures equal to 5% of the number of registered voters (the law is much easier for statewide independents, and somewhat easier for independent candidates for U.S. House).

South Carolina has had very few independent candidates on its general election ballot. No one has ever qualified as an independent candidate for statewide office, other than President; and no one has ever qualified for U.S. House as an independent. Independent candidates appear on the November ballot with the label “By petition”, not “independent.” Over the years there have been qualified minor parties in South Carolina named the Independent Party, and anyone looking at old election returns might be deceived. True independent candidates are listed in the election returns as “petition” candidates, not “independent” candidates.

On May 14, the Virginia Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators. This is the third such case to be filed against Virginia on this issue in the last six months. The new case is Libertarian Party of Virginia and Darryl Bonner v Judd. Here is the eleven-page complaint.

The first such case was filed by Texas Governor Rick Perry. The U.S. District Court said the ban is almost certainly unconstitutional, but that Perry had filed the lawsuit too late (only 70 days before the presidential primary), so injunctive relief was denied. Before the case could get a ruling on declaratory relief, Perry and the other intervening presidential candidates dropped the lawsuit.

Then a new lawsuit was filed by a candidate for U.S. House in the June Democratic congressional primary. But then, after he filed the lawsuit, he was told he had enough valid signatures, even when the ones collected by a resident of the District of Columbia were set aside. So, he dropped his lawsuit.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has this story about the approaching deadline for candidates to qualify for the Americans Elect primary ballot. The story, published early on May 14, says Buddy Roemer has 5,618 “clicks”. As of 12:45 p.m. eastern time on the same day, the Americans Elect web page says now he has 5,668. He needs 10,000 with at least 1,000 from each of ten states.