The Second Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of New York v New York State Board of Elections, 22-44, on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. This is the challenge to the hostile 2020 election law changes that tripled the statewide independent petition and stiffened the definition of a qualified party.

A notable fact is that in the entire history of government-printed ballots, New York has never had a general election ballot with only two gubernatorial candidates, excepting only 1946, and also 2022 if no relief is obtained.

On July 19, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state’s U.S. House district boundaries as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, based on the State Constitution. But the decision does not take effect until after the 2022 election. Neiman v LaRose, 2022-298 and 2022-303. Here is the decision. The vote was 4-3. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

UPDATE made on Tuesday, July 19: it turns out the original post below was not completely accurate. The challenge to the Libertarian Party nominee for Secretary of State is a challenge to the statewide petition. However, even if the petition is shown to lack enough valid signatures, if that were the case, the only effect would be on the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State. The other candidates are safely on the ballot.

July 18 was the deadline for challenges to Illinois minor party and independent petitions. No challenges were filed to the statewide petition of the Libertarian Party, nor to the independent gubernatorial petition filed by Tommy Belg. Those had been the only statewide petitions that were submitted this year.

No challenges were filed to any independent or minor party candidate petitions for U.S. House. There are three such candidates: independents Babette Peyton in the First District and Jerico Cruz in the Fifth District; also the Working Class Party petition in the 4th district, Edward Hershey.

A challenge was filed to the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State, Jesse White, but that challenge does not involve petition validity. Instead it challenges White because he has the same name as the outgoing Secretary of State. That challenge is exceedingly unlikely to succeed, because there is no basis in Illinois law to keep someone off the ballot on the grounds that he or she has an identical name to someone else.