On September 21, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed this brief in Graham v Carr, n.d., 1:22cv-3613. This is the lawsuit against the Georgia law that lets individuals give an unlimited amount of campaign contributions to Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, but which limits contributions to other candidates for those offices to $7,600.
The case will be heard on September 30, Friday, at 1:30 p.m. in Atlanta.
An OH Predictative Insights Poll for the Arizona U.S. Senate race shows these results: Democratic 47%, Republican 35%, Libertarian 6%, undecided 12%. See here.
On September 22, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 to put Eric Ungaro, an independent candidate for state house of representatives, on the ballot. The candidate had been removed from the ballot by the Mahoning County Board of Elections on the basis that some of his campaign material had logos and pictures that seemed to show he was sympathetic to the Democratic Party. Here is the Opinion, which says the Mahoning County Board of Elections should have held an evidentiary hearing concerning that evidence. State ex rel Ungaro v Mahoning County Board of Elections, 2022-1061.
The dissenters said the independent candidate filed his petition too late. The Ohio primary for most offices this year was in May, but for state house of representatives, a special later primary was held in August. The law says the petition is due the day before the primary. The dissenters felt therefore he should have submitted his petition in May, not August.
No state has such an arbitrary law on who can get on the ballot as an independent than Ohio does. Ohio does not have registration by party, but bans independent candidates who seem to be associated with a political party. This leads the election boards and the state courts do ponder statements by the candidate, or the candidate’s spouse, who whether the candidate spoke at certain meetings of political parties, or the content of the candidate’s advertising.
There are fewer candidates on the ballot for U.S. House in November 2022 than there were in November 2020. This blog post includes Delegate to U.S. House from the District of Columbia, so from that viewpoint, there are 436 districts.
Republicans increased their candidates. They have candidates in 424 districts, whereas in 2020 they had 416.
Democrats have candidates in 417 districts, compared to 428 in 2020.
Libertarians have candidates in 87 districts, compared to 119 in 2020.
The Constitution Party has candidates in twelve districts, compared to thirteen in 2020.
The Green Party has candidates in nine districts, compared to twenty in 2020.
The Socialist Workers Party has candidates in three districts, compared to one in 2020.
The Alliance Party has one candidate, compared to none in 2020.
Parties that are only organized in one state, or several states, but which don’t have a national organization, have 24 candidates, compared to 33 in 2020.
There are 78 independent candidates this year, compared to 64 in 2020.
On September 21, a Republican nominee for Trumbull County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge filed a federal lawsuit to get on the November ballot. The Republican Party county central committee chose her because this is a special election. She was then kept off the November ballot because she is a “sore loser”, but she is only a “sore loser” because she was running for a different judicial post in the May 2022 primary.
The case is Kovoor v Ohio Secretary of State, s.d., 2:22cv-3468. Unless her lawsuit succeeds, the only candidate on the November ballot will be the Democratic nominee. Here is her Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge James L. Graham, a Reagan appointee.
The plaintiff, Sarah Kovoor, already lost a similar lawsuit in Ohio Supreme Court on September 19. That case was State ex rel Trumbull County Republican Central Committee v Trumbull County Board of Elections. Here is the Ohio Supreme Court decision.
