South Carolina is one of the states that must get U.S. Justice Department approval before it changes any election law. On August 14, the ACLU sued South Carolina on behalf of the United Citizens Party, under the Voting Rights Act. During the Green Party litigation in South Carolina, the public and the attorneys learned that in April 2008, South Carolina’s Election Commission had changed its interpretation of a state law that requires a candidate for a partisan office in a primary to file a declaration of candidacy. The old interpretation was that a candidate seeking the nomination of two or more parties only had to file one declaration of candidacy. The new, more restrictive, interpretation is that the candidate must file a declaration of candidacy for each party.

The lawsuit says that South Carolina should have asked for U.S. Justice Department approval for this change, but failed to do so. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news. The new lawsuit is Gray v South Carolina State Election Commission, 3:09-cv-02126.

The South Carolina Green Party will appeal its lawsuit over fusion to the 4th circuit. Yesterday the U.S. District Court had ruled against the party. South Carolina permits fusion, but says if a minor party nominee tries to get a major party nomination as well, and fails to win the major party primary, then the candidate can’t even keep his or her original minor party nomination and can’t run at all in November. Thanks to Gene Platt for this news.

On August 12, a New York Supreme Court Justice put New York city councilmember Alan Gerson back on the Democratic Party primary ballot. Gerson is running for re-election. The Board of Elections had removed him because of a cover sheet error (a cover sheet must accompany all petitions in New York state; no other state has such a thing). See this story. The man who challenged Gerson’s petition is appealing to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division; that hearing is set for Tuesday, August 18.