On September 25, the Georgia Libertarian Party appealed Cowen v Raffensperger to the Eleventh Circuit. This is the case filed in 2017 over the Georgia ballot access law for minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House. The case had mostly lost, but the Equal Protection part of the case had been still alive until last month., when the U.S. District Court had dismissed it entirely.
Shortly before the U.S. District Court had dismissed the case entirely, the Libertarian Party had informed the judge that this year, the Georgia legislature had changed the law for presidential ballot access. The new law said a minor party can be on for president even if it has no support whatsoever inside Georgia. The new law lets a minor party be on for president automatically in Georgia if it is on for president in at least 20 other jurisdictions.
The party argued that this undercuts the state’s defense of the U.S. House requirement. The state had argued that a state has a compelling interest in keeping candidates off the ballot unless they have overwhelming support, but that argument is contradicted by the new presidential access law. But the U.S. District Court wouldn’t let the party amend its Complaint to make this point, so now the party is appealing to the Eleventh Circuit.