On July 12, the Third Circuit refused to reconsider its ruling in Constitution Party v Cortes. The original ruling had said the Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties of Pennsylvania don’t have standing to challenge any of these election law problems: (1) the failure of some counties to count write-ins, even though the law is clear that all write-in votes are valid; (2) the failure of the state elections department to tally the write-ins that were counted for Cynthia McKinney in November 2008 for President; (3) the law mandating that a party have registration of 15% of the state total before it can avoid petitions for its nominees; (4) the state’s unique system of charging up to $110,000 if a petition is submitted that lacks suficient signatures.

It is somewhat likely that new lawsuits will be filed soon, with slight variations, to make it logically impossible for any honest court to say there is a standing problem. The petition for rehearing had been pending since June 3.

On July 11, a New Jersey Superior Court ordered the production of printouts, maintenance logs and reports, and machine-testing procedure tapes, from the primary last month. Two Democratic candidates for Fairfield Township party office in Cumberland County earlier produced affidavits from enough voters who swore they had voted for them, to persuasively show that the Sequoia AVC Advantage vote-counting machine undercounted their votes. See this story.

On September 6, New Hampshire holds a special election for State Representative in the 14th district of Rockingham County, centered on Seabrook. Libertarian nominee Brendan Kelly will run against Republican nominee Kevin Janvrin and Democratic nominee Ryan Mahoney. Kelly is one of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party’s strongest vote-getters. He has been an elected official in city government. In the upcoming special election, he is likely to get significant support from Republicans who are disappointed in the outcome of the Republican primary for this seat. The Republican primary was a 7-candidate race, and the surprise winner is perceived by many Republicans to be someone who does not support Republican Party goals. See this story.

The special election is needed because the previous incumbent resigned after being charged with reckless driving. The district is heavily Republican.