WPDE-TV has this story about the attempts by some of the Democratic and Republican Party candidates who were kept off primary ballots to petition their way onto the November ballot as independent candidates. The film features one such candidate going door-to-door. The story says after the candidate’s first 30 minutes, he had gathered 3 signatures and had 957 to go.

As noted in earlier posts about the South Carolina ballot access snafu, South Carolina is tied for having the most difficult independent candidate petition requirements in the nation, for legislature and county partisan office. For those offices, the law requires 5% of the number of registered voters. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate on the ballot for U.S. House, even though the U.S. House requirement is capped at 10,000, which means the requirement is approximately 2.7% for U.S. House. Nor has South Carolina ever had an independent candidate on the ballot for statewide office, other than president. The statewide independent petition is also capped at 10,000.

Although the law is unclear, there is a plausible reason to believe that South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties could nominate some of these candidates if they wish to. South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties all nominate by convention, not primary.

On May 15, the Alabama Secretary of State determined that the Americans Elect petition has enough valid signatures. Americans Elect is the first statewide petition in that state (whether newly-qualifying party or statewide independent candidate) to have completed a petition successfully since the Libertarians did it in 2000. That statement does not make reference to independent candidates for president, who only need one-ninth as many signatures as the other statewide petitions.

Americans Elect’s Board will meet on Thursday morning, May 17, to decide what happens next. It is somewhat plausible that the qualifying deadlines for candidates seeking a place on the Americans Elect primary ballot will be moved to a later date. Americans Elect petition drives that are underway, including the difficult Texas petition, are continuing in the meantime.

On May 15, Michele Petty, a candidate for Texas Supreme Court, place 6, filed a lawsuit in state court, seeking to keep her only opponent off the Republican primary ballot for that office. Petty is the only Democrat running. She wants the petition for Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht declared invalid, which would prevent him from appearing on the Republican primary ballot. Thus, he could not run for re-election, because Texas does not permit write-ins in primaries. The lawsuit is Petty v Texas Republican Party.

Here is the complaint. Texas does not normally require petitions for candidates to get on primary ballots, but candidates for partisan statewide judicial offices do need a petition. Such petitions need 50 signatures from each of the 14 state judicial appellate districts. The complaint charges that the petition for the Fort Worth area district did not fill in three blanks at the top of the form. Each petition has a statement in both English and Spanish. Both the English-language sentence, and the Spanish-language sentence, contains blanks. The blanks are to be filled in by the candidate’s name and the name of the office being sought. Judge Hecht’s petition for the Fort Worth district didn’t fill in the blanks in the Spanish part of the form.

Texas courts have usually not enforced ultra-strict compliance with such technicalities.