The Libertarian Party’s Ballot Access Committee held a meeting on Monday, June 12, 2023. From that meeting come these petition drive updates:

Arkansas: 3,740 total signatures to date, 1,900 of which have been gathered by volunteers. 10,000 valid signatures are needed, with a deadline of February 13, 2024.

North Dakota: The petition drive is getting underway with a volunteer effort to date. No reported numbers yet.

Ohio: The LP will be doing an Independent petition for its presidential ticket, needing 5,000 valid signatures, with an August 2024 deadline. A stand-in presidential ticket has been selected and the selection of presidential electors is nearing completion. When that is done, the petition drive will start.

On June 12, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion in State ex rel One Person, One Vote v Ohio Ballot Board, 2023-Ohio-1928. This is a lawsuit over the wording of the ballot measure that will be on the ballot in August 2023, making it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot and also making it more difficult for them to pass.

The ruling upholds the wording that says the measure “Elevates” the number of signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The plaintiffs had argued that “elevates” implies an improvement. They argued that the ballot should say that the measure “increases” the number of signatures, but the Court said “elevates” and “increases” mean the same thing. That part of the ruling was 4-3. The Court did order a few changes in the wording, but those changes aren’t as important as the issue of which verb to use. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the news about the decision.

The Eleventh Circuit is currently considering Rose v Georgia Secretary of State, 22-12593, the case over whether Georgia elections for Public Service Commissioner should be at-large or by district. The U.S. District Court had ruled that the at-large system injures African-American voters, and the state had appealed. Meanwhile no election was held for Public Service Commissioner in 2022, pending the outcome of the case.

On June 9, both sides filed new briefs, giving their view of how the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Allen v Milligan should affect the Georgia case. In Allen v Milligan, the U.S. Supreme Court again upheld section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Here is the brief of the Georgia voters who filed the case.

Here is the state government brief.