On September 18, the Second Circuit issued a one-sentence order in Kennedy v Berger, 24-2385, denying a ballot position to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in New York. It is now confirmed that New York will be the only state with only two presidential candidates on the ballot.
On September 14, the Georgia Libertarian Party requested permission to amend its Complaint in Graham v Carr (also known as Graham v Attorney General of Georgia) so as to revive it. This is the case filed in 2022 against the Georgia law that allows individuals to contribute more to Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor or Lieutenant Governor, than to other candidates for the same offices.
The Eleventh Circuit had said the case is moot because the original Complaint lacked some verbiage about future campaigns beyond 2022, so if the Complaint can be amended, the case can be revived. The case number is 1:22cv-03613.
On September 19, the Tennessee Libertarian Party filed a notice of appeal in Darnell v Hargett, the ballot access case filed in 2023. The U.S. District Court last month upheld the law on how a new party gets on the ballot, a petition signed by 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. The U.S. District Court decision did not mention that the U.S. Supreme Court has twice said that if a ballot access law is so stringent that it is rarely used, it is probably unconstitutional. No party has got on the Tennessee ballot by petition since 1968. Parties that tried and failed to petition successfully have included the Populist, Green, Constitution, Americans Elect, and Reform Parties.
The U.S. District Court decision also did not mention that the current law creates voter confusion in Tennessee. Because the independent presidential petition is only 275 signatures, independent presidential candidates always appear with the inaccurate label “Independent”, instead of the proper label.
UPDATE: the case number in the Sixth Circuit is 24-5856.
On September 18, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood, a Clinton appointee, refused to let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. withdraw from the Michigan ballot. Here is the 18-page opinion. One reason cited is that the Natural Law Party, which nominated Kennedy in Michigan, does not want Kennedy to withdraw, because it is too late for it to nominate anyone else.
On September 19, the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission voted 5-1 to keep Jill Stein on the ballot. The Democratic Party had challenged her petition, pointing out that approximately 1,000 signers hadn’t put their Ward Number on the petition. But there is no tradition that signatures are invalid when that information is missing, and it makes no meaningful difference for petitions for statewide office.
The challenge had been filed on September 17.
