Louisiana’s filing deadline for presidential candidates and candidates for presidential elector to file was September 2. However, because of severe flooding in Baton Rouge, and power outages, the office had seemed to indicate that the deadline would be extended. However, on September 9, the Secretary of State indicated he would not accept late filings. As a result, Bob Barr (Libertarian), Brian Moore (Socialist), and Ted Weill (Reform Party) are off the ballot. This is especially ironic in the case of Barr and Weill, since the Libertarian and Reform Parties are ballot-qualified. At least one of these campaigns has already found an attorney to try to resolve the situation. Louisiana has no real state interest whatsoever in being rigid on the deadline, because the state hasn’t held its congressional primary yet. Furthermore, since no petition is needed, there are no signatures to check.

In Mississippi, the State Board of Elections met on September 9 and disallowed the Natural Law Party’s filing of Brian Moore for president, because certain papers had not been submitted until 5:10 p.m. The office had previously said the true deadline was midnight, and that there was no cause for concern. The Board also said that the party state chair, who also functioned as the secretary of the meeting that nominated Moore, should have signed two different forms instead of just one form. The Board also disallowed the petitions for Gene Amondson as an independent candidate (he is the Prohibition Party nominee), because it said some of his petitions were submitted late.

U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane has set a hearing in Baldwin v Cortes for September 10, at 10 a.m in Harrisburg. This case argues that the Pennsylvania petition deadline of August 1 is unconstitutional, not only because it is too early under Anderson v Celebrezze, but also because the state legislature never created that deadline. Under the U.S. District Court decisions in Ohio earlier this year, Article II of the U.S. Constitution requires that ballot access laws relating to presidential elections must be passed by state legislatures. The Constitution says, “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.”

The August 1 petition deadline was set in 1984 in an out-of-court settlement by the Commissioner of Elections. The Libertarian Party, and the Communist Party, had both sued Pennsylvania in 1984 over its May petition deadline. The state agreed that it could not defend the law in court, so promised to accept minor party and independent candidate petitions up until August 1. The legislature has never amended the law, which continues to say that these petitions are due in May during presidential election years, and April in other election years.

Bryan Greene, independent candidate for U.S. House in North Carolina’s 10th district, filed a federal lawsuit on August 8 against that state’s ballot access laws for independent candidates for U.S. House. On September 9 he withdrew his request for injunctive relief, but of course he will still argue for declaratory relief. The case is Greene v Bartlett. The case has been delayed because the state argues (weakly) that Greene should have filed in federal court in the eastern district instead of the western district. That is a weak argument on the state’s part, since the prior most recent federal ballot access case in North Carolina (DeLaney v Bartlett) had been filed and won in the middle district, which seems to establish that not all cases must be filed in the eastern district. Also the Libertarian Party’s mid-1990’s federal ballot access case had been filed in the middle district (McLaughlin v State Board of Elections). UPDATE: on September 9, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Voorhees ruled that the western district does have jurisdiction.

North Carolina laws for independent candidates for U.S. House are so severe, no independent candidate for that office has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot in that state. North Carolina started using government-printed ballots in 1901.