On July 29, the Georgia Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Cowen v Georgia Secretary of State. Here is the cert Petition. The case involves the Georgia law for minor party and independent candidate ballot access for U.S. House. The U.S. District Court had struck it down, but the Eleventh Circuit had restored it. It is so restrictive, no minor party has ever been able to be on the ballot for U.S. House in a regularly-schedule election since 1942. The law was passed in 1943.

On July 28, a Superior Court in San Francisco held a hearing in a lawsuit challenging the city’s charter amendment that lets certain non-citizens vote in San Francisco School Board elections. See this story. The lawsuit says the State Constitution bars the city’s policy.

The New York Times has this story about the fact that no minor party gubernatorial petitions succeeded this year, as a result of the 2020 law that tripled the number of signatures for statewide office, and also increased the vote test for qualified party status from 50,000 votes to 2%. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

As the article says, a State Supreme Court in Albany is still considering whether to grant injunctive relief to the statewide Libertarian slate. Also the Second Circuit will hear a similar federal case in early September. The article does not mention the Second Circuit case.

The story gives prominent mention to the fact that this is the first time since 1946 that New York has had only two candidates on the general election ballot for Governor. It could have added that 1946 is the only year like that since the beginning of government-printed ballots in 1890.

The Libertarian cases pending in State Court in Albany are Sharpe v New York State Board of Elections, 4989-22, and Hollister v New York State Board of Elections, 4990-22.