On August 27, the Georgia Secretary of State acknowledged that Michelle Conlon does have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot as an independent candidate for the State House, district 80. The law requires a petition of 5% of the number of registered voters. In July, Conlon was told that she only had 976 valid signatures. Now, however, the state agrees that she has 1,075 valid signatures. The requirement in the 80th district is 1,027.

Conlon is backed by the state Democratic Party. The incumbent in this district, Mike Jacobs, had been elected as a Democrat in 2006, but he switched to the Republican Party in 2007. Democrats were naturally eager to win the seat back, but the candidate who had been expected to win the Democratic primary this year was disqualified because of evidence that he was not a resident of the district. Thus, if the independent petition had not succeeded, the voters would have been left with only one candidate on the November ballot. Thanks to Kyle Bennett for this news.

A U.S. District Court in Massachusetts will hold a hearing in Barr v Galvin on September 12. The issue is whether the U.S. Constitution requires states to permit stand-ins for president and vice-president on petitions. Massachusetts permitted stand-ins in 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2004. Also Massachusetts told the Libertarian Party in 2007 that stand-ins are permitted. Therefore, a side issue, separate from the constitutional issue, is whether the state violates due process by changing its mind after it was virtually too late for the Libertarian Party to start an entirely new petition.

On August 28, Allan Stevo asked the 7th circuit to hear his appeal. He is an independent candidate for U.S. House. A U.S. District Court had upheld the law he had challenged, requiring him to get 5% of the last vote cast on his petition (approximately 10,000 signatures) even though state law would only have required exactly 5,000 signatures if he had been running in 2002 or 2012. The case is Stevo v Keith.