On April 11, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party filed a lawsuit in state court, asking that their petitions for ballot access in 2012/2014 be ruled to have enough valid signatures. The case is Libertarian Party of Maryland et al v Maryland State Board of Elections, in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.

The complaint points out these flaws in the recent validation process: (1) the petition has a place for a signature and a printed name. If the signer used a middle name or initial in his or her printed name but not the signature, or vice versa, the signature was invalid; (2) if the signer used a different form of his or her first name in the signature line versus the printed line, the signature was invalid (for example, printing Margaret but signing Peggy); (3) if a signer signed twice and the first time was invalid, but the second attempt would have been valid, neither the first nor second attempt was considered valid; (4) if the circulator varied his or her name (as in points #1 or #2 above) the entire sheet was invalid; (5) the state changed the wording on the petition slightly during the petition drives, and sheets with the old wording were rejected; (6) and, as is the case for almost all petitions, sometimes signatures were invalidated even though they were clearly valid.

Last month, the NAACP sent this letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott. It politely asks him to submit recent legal changes (concerning voting for ex-felons) to the U.S. Justice Department. Earlier this year, the Governor and his cabinet changed procedures for ex-felons to register to vote. The Scott changes require an ex-felon to wait five years after release before asking permission to register to vote. Florida is covered by Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, so this change should have been submitted to the Justice Department. Scott has not responded to the letter, even though the NAACP had asked for a response by April 8. Although the NAACP has not said yet that it will sue, it seems likely that a lawsuit will be filed.