On August 28, Carl Romanelli filed an appeal of his ballot access lawsuit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Romanelli v Caroselli. It argues that the correct number of signatures needed for statewide minor party and independent petitions this year is 15,494, not 67,070. This lawsuit is the only remaining hope for any statewide minor party or independent candidate to be on the Pennsylvania ballot this year, since the rehearing to the 3rd circuit on the constitutional issue, even if granted, would not be heard in time for the election. The challenge proceedings to the Green Party petition are not complete, but since the party turned in 94,000 signatures, and so far 60% of them are invalid, clearly the party won’t be able to show that it has 67,070 valid.

According to the campaign for the Illinois Democratic gubernatorial nominee, the Illinois Democratic Party no longer objects to the Green Party’s statewide Illinois petition. Earlier in the year, various Democratic Party officials had challenged the petition. This led to a check of that petition, which showed the party had more than 27,000 valid names (25,000 are required). The possibility still existed that the challengers would try to overturn the conclusion that the petition had enough names. However, the Greens now seem safely on the ballot. The decision won’t be official until the State Board of Elections meets on August 31.

This is only the 2nd time in history that the Green Party has appeared on the statewide ballot in Illinois (the other time was 2000). It is also the first time that any statewide minor party petition in Illinois has withstood the challenge procedure since 2002, when the Libertarian petition survived a challenge.

On August 17, the New Hampshire Supreme Court had ruled that the state’s laws governing order of parties and candidates on the ballot are unconstitutional. On August 25, the Court ruled that the ruling should not take effect until after this year’s September primary.