This excellent Stateline article explains many reasons why petitioning has become more difficult in the last few years. Thanks to Eric Wong for the link.
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On June 24, Republican candidate James Judge, running for U.S. House, was removed from the primary ballot for filing the wrong form. There are separate forms for federal candidates, versus state and local candidates, to affirm that they support the U.S. Constitution, although the wording of the oath is identical for both. Judge used the state/local form. He filed a week before the deadline and the state accepted his paperwork, without telling him until it was too late that he had used the wrong form.
On June 27, he filed a lawsuit in state court to reverse the decision. See this story.
On June 24, a Connecticut state trial court refused to put Muad Hrezi on the Democratic primary ballot as a candidate for the U.S. House. He needed 3,833 signatures and submitted 4,950, but he didn’t have enough valid signatures. The law required all the signatures to be collected between April 26 and June 7. Hrezi argued that he would have qualified if he had received the blank petition forms on April 26 instead of two days later. But the judge said even though the e-mailed blank forms were not sent until April 28, Hrezi could always have come into the clerk’s office and picked them up physically on April 26. Hrezi v Merrill, Superior Court, Hartford, HHD-cv22-6156703-5. Here is the opinion.
On June 27, a New York State Supreme Court Judge in Richmond County struck down a new New York city ordinance that lets permanent resident non-citizens vote in elections for New York city office. See this story. The ruling says the city could do this, if it amended the city charter with a vote of the electorate. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news.
UPDATE: the case is Fossella v Adams, 85007/2022. Here is the opinion. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.
Persons who signed the 2022 Green Party petition in North Carolina are getting multiple text messages and phone calls from persons working for the Democratic Party. The party submitted 22,000 signatures and when the counties checked them, they were told 16,000 are valid. The requirement is 10,000. The Democratic operation seeks to induce signers to withdraw their signatures.
The Green Party is unable to get more signatures during this period, and is furthermore forbidden by law from putting the names and addresses of signers in its database. Yet, the State Board of Elections has apparently furnished the list to the Democratic Party group.
One text says, “If the Green Party is on the ballot in 2022 and 2024, it will take votes away from the Democrats, giving Republicans a huge advantage that will help them win North Carolina in 2022 and 2024.”
Another text says, “Your name was listed on a petition to put the Green Party on the ballot. We just wanted to confirm whether you signed it or not.” It then lists choices, each with a checkbox, “Yes, I did sign”; “No, I did not sign”; “Not Sure”; “Wrong Number.”
Some of the phone calls claim the Green Party itself is calling.
Nothing in the North Carolina election law authorizes withdrawal of signatures from any type of petition, either before or after signing. The State Board of Elections will decide on July 1 whether to put the Green Party on the ballot.