North Carolina Independent Candidate for U.S. House Won’t Seek Injunctive Relief, Just Declaratory Relief

Posted on by September 9, 2008
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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.

Another Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate Sues Maine Over Ballot Access

Posted on by September 9, 2008
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On September 9, independent U.S. Senate candidate Laurie Dobson filed a federal lawsuit against the Maine Secretary of State. Dobson v Dunlap, 1:08cv-00292. Dobson collected over 5,000 valid signatures this year to be an independent candidate, and only 4,000 are required. Maine, like several other New England states, requires petitioning candidates to first submit signatures to town clerks, and then collect the signatures and turn them in to the Secretary of State. Some of the Maine town clerks refused to verify Dobson’s signatures in time for her to take them to the Secretary of State. The lawsuit argues that the candidate should not be punished for the tardiness of the town clerks.

This is the third federal ballot access case filed in Maine this year. The first, by another independent U.S. Senate candidate, Herb Hoffman, is still not over, since Hoffman has filed a petition for rehearing in U.S. District Court. The second ballot access case was filed last week by Bob Barr, and also concerns the interplay between deadlines for submission to town clerks and the separate deadline for getting signatures to the Secretary of State. UPDATE: the Herb Hoffman case is over; on September 9 his request for reconsideration was denied.

Hearing Set For South Carolina Green Party Ballot Access Case

Posted on by September 8, 2008
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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.