On March 26, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Pennsylvania election officials, and Pennsylvania state courts, cannot enforce a state law that says petitioners cannot work outside their home districts. The case is In Re: The Nomination Petitions and Papers of Carl Stevenson, 54-MAP-2010. Here is the decision, by Chief Justice Ronald Castille.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not actually hold that the residency requirement for petitioners is unconstitutional. Instead, it says that because a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania in 2002 enjoined the residency requirement for circulators for minor party and independent candidates, the law can’t be enforced. This might seem obvious, but in Pennsylvania, it isn’t obvious. There are two concurring opinions (here and here), both of which deal with procedure. The Supreme Court opinion does not say anything about precedents from other states on this issue that have been handed down in the last ten years.

Technically, the in-district residency requirement for petitioners seeking to put someone on a primary ballot is still in effect. If the legislature were responsible, it would now pass a bill repealing all in-district residency requirements, for both types of petition, primary and general. However, the Pennsylvania legislature is noted for almost never updating the election code. There are now seven Pennsylvania ballot access laws on the statutes that have been held unconstitutional, but never repealed. The worst example is that in 1984, two U.S. District Courts in Pennsylvania (the eastern district and the middle district) struck down the petition deadline for minor party and independent candidate petitions, but the legislature has never changed the election code to reflect that.

The Virginia deadline for getting candidates on the June 2012 congressional primary has now passed. The U.S. Senate seat up this year is an open seat, because incumbent U.S. Senator James Webb is not running for re-election. Only one Democrat, and only three Republicans, submitted signatures. Each needed 10,000 signatures, and each submitted at least double that amount. See this story. UPDATE: this post has been re-written on March 31 to show that three Republicans, not two, qualified. The third is E. W. Jackson.

Statewide candidate petitions in Virginia require at least 400 signatures from each U.S. House district in the state. The news story does not say if the candidates complied with the distribution requirement based on the old U.S. House boundaries, or the new ones. The new ones were only settled earlier this month, when the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department approved the boundaries of the new districts.

The Virginia legislature passed a bill last month, saying for 2012, petitions are valid whether they are based on the old districts or the new districts. However, Governor Robert McDonnell still hasn’t signed that bill, HB 1151. He must act by April 10. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

This news story demonstrates persuasively that despite the bad treatment of independent candidates in certain states in the U.S., there are far worse places in the world for independent candidates.