The Green and Constitution Parties have a lawsuit pending in federal court against North Carolina’s May petition deadline for new parties. The deadline is especially harmful, given that North Carolina requires more signatures to place a minor party or independent presidential candidate on the ballot than any other state except California. For 2012, 85,379 signatures are required.

On June 28, the state filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, saying the entire case should be dismissed now, even before the scheduled trial in 2013, on the grounds that the two plaintiff parties have only made feeble attempts to get on the ballot. The state ignores the precedents that say that parties have standing to challenge early petition deadlines, whether they make any effort to complete the petition or not. On July 6, the parties filed a brief, making this point.