On September 12, U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio, refused to grant an injunction putting Charlie Morrison on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House, 15th district. Morrison is appealing.

He turned in enough valid signatures, but he was kept off the ballot because he had run for Republican Party committee member in this year’s primary, and had also voted in this year’s primary. Ohio does not have registration by party, and the law is vague about who may or may not qualify to be an independent candidate. Ironically, the Green Party nominee for Governor of Ohio this year also voted in a major party primary, and he is on the ballot as an independent candidate. No one challenged his ballot status.

On September 12, Jamie Raskin won his Democratic primary race for a seat in the Maryland State Senate, defeating the incumbent Democratic Senator.

Raskin is an attorney who represented an independent candidate in the only U.S. Supreme Court case over entry to candidate debates (Arkansas Educational TV v Forbes). Raskin also represented the Reform Party in the 9th circuit in 1998, in a challenge to a federal public campaign funding law that provides unequal general election funding to parties that got over 5%, but under 25%, of the last presidential vote. He also wrote “Overruling Democracy”, a book that criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s hostility toward minor parties and independent candidates.

The New Mexico ballot access case hearing will be in federal court on September 18. The judge will probably rule very soon afterwards whether to place the Libertarian Party nominees on the ballot. The issue is whether New Mexico (uniquely among all states) may require a new party to submit one petition to qualify itself, and then additional petitions for each of the people it has nominated by convention. The party already did the petition to qualify itself, and argues that the state has no interest in requiring any more petitions.