On June 30, former Georgia U.S. House member Marjorie Taylor Greene said that she is working on creating a new political party. See this story. It is ironic that she is from Georgia, the nation’s worst state for ballot access.
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Two independent candidates for U.S. House in the Illinois 4th district charge that the incumbent congressmember’s staff members are part of the challenge against their petitions. The issue of government employees leading a challenge during their work hours also arose in Pennsylvania in 2004 and 2006, when Ralph Nader’s petition challenge was orchestrated by government employees, and the Green Party’s Pennsylvania challenge in 2006. See this story.
On June 30, the Lincoln Party submitted approximately 74,000 signatures to place its nominee for Indiana Secretary of State on the ballot. This is double the requirement. This petition has collected more signatures this year than any other minor party or independent candidate. If the party polls 2% for Secretary of State, it will be ballot-qualified for the next two elections. See this story.
Law professor Mark Brown, who specializes in election law, has this commentary about the Alaska Supreme Court and lower court decisions on whether Dan J. Sullivan should be on the primary ballot as a candidate for U.S.Senator.
On June 29, the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission voted 4-1 that Aaron Day, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, is disqualified because he moved his residence from one New Hampshire town to another town, and filed his Declaration of Candidacy while he was still registered at his old address instead of his new address. The decision frees Day to move ahead with his federal lawsuit, Day v New Hampshire Secretary of state, 1:26cv-499. In his lawsuit, Day cites decisions of the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits that states cannot even require candidates for Congress to be registered voters. There are no contrary precedents. See this story.