On September 20, Couy Griffin asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to hear his appeal in the case in which a lower state court had removed him from office. The Court had done so under the “insurrection” clause of the 14th amendment. He is an Otero County Commissioner, although his term expires in a few months and he is not running for re-election. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news.
On September 20, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state to print the name of an independent candidate on the November ballot. The candidate, Terpsehore P. Maras, is running for Secretary of State. State ex rel Maras v LaRose, 2022-1083. Here is the Opinion.
The requirement is 5,000 signatures. The various counties had verified 5,010 signatures originally, and later they found some more valid signatures and notified the Secretary of State’s office of their last-minute discoveries. But the Secretary of State refused to accept the supplemental signatures. Also he determined that some of the signatures had been validated in error, and he found there were only 4,993 signatures.
The Court said the Secretary of State should have accepted the last-minute additional signatures.
The Supreme Court vote was 4-2. The dissesnters did not disagree with the findings about the number of signatures, but felt that the court papers had technical errors and therefore that the Court should not have accepted the case.
As a result of the court decision, the only states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates in November 2022 are California and Kentucky. As to the states that don’t have any statewide offices up this year, all of those states have at least one minor party or independent candidate for US House on the ballot. In those states that is the office at the top of the ballot.
On September 16, a Texas state trial court ruled that independent legislative candidate Linda Curtis should remain on the ballot. She had been challenged by her Republican opponent. Gerdes v Scott, Travis County District Court, D-1-GN-22-3841.
Texas independent candidate petition sheets require information about the name of the candidate to be repeated several times. Some of Curtis’ petition sheets didn’t fill out all the blanks, but each petition sheet had the needed information in at least one place. The court order says the petition is valid. Furthermore, the order says the challenge was filed too late. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
On September 19, over 200 U.S. political scientists published an open letter calling for Congress to pass a bill for multi-member U.S. House districts, combined with proportional representation. The group is organized under the name “Scholars for Redistricting Reform.” See the statement here.
A bill has been pending in Congress to make that change. It is HR 3863, by Congressman Don Beyer (D-Virginia). He has introduced it for several sessions of congress now.
Two minor party candidates for U.S. House have been invited to debate their major party opponents in Utah. The debates are conducted by the Utah Debate Commission, which bases its invitations on polls that the Commission itself conducts.
Constitution Party nominee Cassie Easley, running in the Second District, will debate her major party opponents on October 14.
United Utah Party nominee January Walker, running in the Fourth District, will debate her major party opponents on October 12.
There are no minor party or independent candidates in the First District. In the Third District, there are three minor party nominees but none of them scored high enough in the polls. They are from the Libertarian, Constitution, and Independent American Parties. See this story.
