On August 22, the Florida State Court of Appeals issued an opinion putting Rebekah Jones on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, First District. The lower court had ruled against her. Jones v Schiller, 1D22-2465. Here is the opinion, which concerns the Florida law barring candidates from primaries if they have not been registered members of the party for a full year.

The Secretary of State had put Jones on the primary ballot, but then her opponent had challenged that decision, and submitted documents showing that Jones was a registered independent between June and August 2021 when Jones lived in Maryland. Thus the trial court had removed Jones. But the Appeals Court says that the Florida prior affiliation law doesn’t permit exterior evidence. The State Court of Appeals says that if the candidate signs the declaration of candidacy about prior affiliation, and the Secretary of State has no awareness that the declaration is wrong, then the declaration must stand.

This decision might have some helpfulness to the ongoing legal battle to put the People’s Party nominee for Pasco County Commission on the ballot. That case is pending in the Eleventh Circuit. UPDATE: here is a news story.

Pennsylvania election officials have revised the number of signatures needed for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, for district office. For the most part, the revisions increase the number of signatures. The revision was not posted to the state’s website until July 30, 2022. The petition deadline was August 1.

The original requirements for U.S. House, posted several months ago, were: district one 2,343; district two 1,000; district three 1,000; district four 1,748; district five 1,553; district six 1,715; district seven 1,654; district eight 1,571; district nine 2,200; district ten 1,822; district eleven 1,955; district twelve 1,419; district thirteen 2,321; district fourteen 2,277; district fifteen 2,291; district sixteen 2,138; district seventeen 1,814.

The new requirements are: one 2,338; two 1,000; three 2,300; four 2,211; five 1,901; six 1,783; seven 1,641; eight 1,563; nine 2,195; ten 1,812; eleven 1,946; twelve 1,995; thirteen 2,313; fourteen 2,272; fifteen 2,289; sixteen 2,138; seventeen 1,976.

The statewide total for the original figures is 30,821. The statewide total for the revised figures is 33,673. Fortunately the late changes do not seem to have injured any petitioning candidates. Pennsylvania always has trouble determining the number of signatures after a redistricting. It would save a great deal of work if the legislature would provide for a fixed number of signatures instead of 2% of the last winner’s vote, which is complicated when the boundaries change.

On August 19, a Florida state appeals court put Jerry Torres back on the Republican primary ballot as a candidate for U.S. House, 14th district. He had earlier been removed because Democrats challenged his declaration of candidacy. It was notarized by a Mississippi judge while Torres was in Africa. The state appeals court ruled that the challengers lack standing. See this story. Torres v Shaw, 1D22-2423. Here is the opinion.

The Florida primary is August 23. Technically, the lower court had ruled that votes for Torres should not be counted. It had been too late to remove him from the ballot, because the ballots are already printed.

Still pending is a case on whether Rebekah Jones should be on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, District One.