Montana election officials have determined that the independent presidential petition for Jill Stein only had 3,263 valid signatures. The law requires 5,000. Stein is the Green Party nominee, and if her petition had succeeded, she would have the label “Green” on the ballot next to her name. She had submitted approximately 6,800 signatures.

No Green Party presidential nominee has been on the ballot in Montana since 2004. The ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.

As noted earlier, U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Story had dismissed the ballot access lawsuit filed by the Georgia Green Party and the Georgia Constitution Party on July 17, before the state had even answered the Complaint. Judge Story wrote “it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of the claim”, and his authority for that was that the Georgia ballot access laws held been upheld already in Jenness v Fortson, Cartwright v Barnes, and Coffield Kemp.

However, on July 24, the plaintiffs had asked him to reconsider, pointing out that all the precedents Judge Story relied on relate to congressional or state office elections. None of the precedents he cited refer to presidential elections. Both the U.S. Supreme Court, in Anderson v Celebrezze, and the 11th circuit, in Bergland v Harris, had ruled that Jenness v Fortson doesn’t control presidential election ballot access. Georgia is in the 11th circuit. It has now been a month since the plaintiffs asked for rehearing, and the judge has not acted on it. The state has not opposed the motion for reconsideration. In normal circumstances, the judge should have responded by now, especially as this is a case that affects the upcoming election. The case is Green Party of Georgia v Kemp, northern district, 1:12-cv-1822. The plaintiffs have presented evidence that the Georgia procedure is so restrictive, no statewide petition in Georgia has succeeded since 2000. There is no other state except Indiana for which that is a true statement.

On August 15, U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith denied ballot access to Greg V. Jolivette, an independent candidate for Ohio state house, 51st district. Jolivette had enough valid signatures, but he was still kept off the ballot because election officials, and the judge, believe he had too many ties to the Republican Party. Here is the decision in Jolivette v Husted, southern district, 2:12-cv-603.

Jolivette is not a sore loser and he did not even vote in the Republican primary, but the judge used Jolivette’s recent close ties with the Republican Party to rule against him. Ohio has the nation’s vaguest law on who can or cannot be an independent candidate. In Ohio, the voter registration form does not ask a candidate to choose a party (or independent status), so there is no concrete method to determine someone’s party membership (or independent status) except the record of whether the candidate votes in a party primary. But even though Jolivette didn’t vote in the Republican primary, he is still tagged as a Republican, against his will. The candidate is appealing to the 6th circuit, which is expediting the case. All briefs will be in by August 31.