On July 23, Michael Collier, the independent candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor who is suing over the law that requires him to collect 81,030 signatures in just thirty days, filed this reply brief.
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Here is the Alaska primary ballot for U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative. Daniel J. Sullivan, who is running for U.S. Senate, has no party label on the ballot even though he is a registered Republican. The Division of Elections initially refused to list him at all, but the State Supreme Court ordered that he be listed. In response, the Division has somewhat churlishly omitted his party label. The Director ofthe Division says this is to enable voters to distinguish between U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan.
Former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and others have formed the Independent Leadership Council, which will encourage independent candidates to run. Here is the website.
On July 22, some Florida Republican officials sued the Secretary of State, to force the Secretary of State to remove Libertarian Peter Jassenoff from the ballot. The challengers say Jassenoff paid his $10,440 filing fee with a check from his personal checking account, instead of from a checking account designated as a campaign finance checking account.
On July 21, a third federal lawsuit was filed against the new Louisiana ballot access procedures for independent and minor party candidates who are running for U.S. Senate. Carpenter v Landry, m.d., 3:26cv-791. The plaintiff is an independent voter. The new law requires him to have completed a petition of 2,500 signatures by January 14. No one can sign who is registered into a qualified party.
All three cases are pro se, meaning the cases are filed by the plaintiffs themselves, without an attorney being involved. This new case, filed by Chuck Carpenter, does a good job of highlighting the unconstitutional early petition deadline. The other two cases are those filed by Jamie LaBranche in the middle district, and Jon Hyers in the eastern district. The two older cases have been moving slowly.
Here is the Carpenter complaint.