North Dakota Supreme Court Unanimously Rules that Initiative Rejected by the Secretary of State Did Have Enough Valid Signatures

Posted on by September 9, 2022
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On September 7, the North Dakota Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Hendrix v Jaeger, 2022 ND 168. Here is the Opinion. The ruling restores a statewide term limits initiative to the ballot.

The initiative concerns term limits for the legislature and the Governor. It needed 31,164 signatures, and proponents submitted 46,366 signatures. But the Secretary of State invalidated the petition. The Secretary rejected all the sheets notarized by one particular Notary Public, which put it below the requirement. The Secretary of State invalidated all those sheets because the Secretary of State believed that the Notary had notarized several sheets allegedly signed by the same circulator, yet on those several sheets, the signature of the circulator varied widely from one sheet to the next.

The Supreme Court reviewed many somewhat similar cases from other state courts, and found that those other precedents all rejected the concept of rejecting all the signatures handled by one particular notary, just because it appeared the notary had notarized one or a few particular sheets that should not have been considered valid.

Second Libertarian Qualifies for Governor of New Hampshire

Posted on by September 8, 2022
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The New Hampshire November 2022 ballot will list four candidates for Governor: the Democratic nominee, the Republican nominee, and two candidates with the label “Libertarian”. Those two Libertarians are Karlyn Borysenko and Kelly Halldorson. The Borysenko petition had been found valid several weeks ago, and the Halldorson petition was very recently also found valid. Thanks to Daryl Perry for this news.

Michigan Supreme Court Orders State Canvassing Board to Place Initiative on Ballot even though Spaces Between Words on the Petition Were Virtually Invisible

Posted on by September 8, 2022
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On September 8, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the State Canvassing Board to place an initiative on the ballot, even though the petition description of the measure (abortion) had virtually invisible spaces between the words. The vote is 5-2. Here is the order in Reproductive Freedom for All v Board of State Canvassers, SC 164760. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.

Polls Show Georgia’s U.S. Senate Race Will Require a December 2022 Run-Off

Posted on by September 9, 2022
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Georgia and Louisiana are the only states that provide for general election run-offs if no one gets 50% in the general election. Because the Georgia Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified for all statewide offices, sometimes the presence of the Libertarian means that no one gets 50% for U.S. Senate. In 1992, 2008, and 2020, Georgia thus had to hold a January run-off for U.S. Senate. Since then, the date of Georgia general election run-offs has been changed to December of the election year, so any 2022 runoff will be December 6.

The 538.com website shows polling for the 2022 Georgia U.S. Senate race for the past several months. Although the lead has shifted over the months, the poll consistently shows that the race is so close that no one will get 50% in November.

In the 2020 election, the majority party in the U.S. Senate was not known until the Georgia January 5, 2021 runoffs.

New Party Qualifies in Delaware

Posted on by September 8, 2022
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The Nonpartisan Party has qualified for the Delaware ballot. It has a nominee for U.S. House, and several for the legislature.

The Nonpartisan Party is completely separate from the Independent Party, which is also a qualified party in Delaware.

Parties qualify in Delaware by having registration of at least one-tenth of 1% of the total.

The Green Party did not qualify for the Delaware ballot this year. It has only 737 registrants and it needed 755. This is the first time since before 2000 that the party will not have any candidates in Delaware. However, it can easily qualify for the 2024 ballot if it increases its registration by a small amount.