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.

A U.S. District Court in South Carolina will hear South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina Election Commission on September 18, at 2 p.m. The issue is whether the Green Party’s candidate for the State House should be on the ballot. After the Green Party nominated Eugene Platt for the 115th district, Platt also tried to get the Democratic nomination. He lost the Democratic primary, so now the state says he can’t be the Green Party nominee either. South Carolina permits fusion, so it is fundamentally silly of the state to punish someone for trying to be the nominee of two parties and only succeeding in being the nominee of one party.