New Jersey Libertarian Congressional Candidate Files Federal Lawsuit Against Out-of-State Circulator Ban

Posted on by August 14, 2026
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On August 13, Libertarian congressional nominee Lana Leguia filed a federal lawsuit against the New Jersey ban on out-of-state circulators in general elections.  Leguia v Caldwell, 3:26cv-10263.  Earlier she was kept off the ballot because she had used some out-of-state circulators.  The New Jersey ban on out-of-state circulators for primary petitions had been declared unconstitutional in federal court in 2021, but the state courts refused to examine whether that decision also means that the ban for general election petitions should be disregarded.

The new federal case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee.  He is the judge who enjoined the discriminatory ballot access format in primary elections in 2024.

Here is the Complaint in the new case.

New Jersey State Court Will Decide Whether an Independent Candidate Can be Barred Just Because Some Voters Cast Write-in Votes for Him or Her in Primary

Posted on by August 14, 2026
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A New Jersey state trial court will hear oral arguments on August 17 in a case over whether an independent candidate can be disqualified just because he received some write-in votes in a major party primary.  See this story.

New Jersey is one of the few states that allows write-in votes, yet doesn’t have a procedure for a write-in declaration of candidacy.  If New Jersey did have such a procedure, this type of lawsuit would not arise.  The candidate is running for Brielle Borough Council, a partisan office.  He argues that if an independent candidate is considered a “sore loser” just because people cast a write-in ballot for him in a party primary, no candidate would be safe.  The candidate’s enemies could cast write-in votes for the candidate to sabotage him.

Florida Republican Party Drops Lawsuit that Had Tried to Remove Libertarian from U.S. House Ballot

Posted on by August 14, 2026
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On August 11, the Florida Republican Party dropped its lawsuit that had been filed to remove Peter Jassenoff from the ballot.  Jassenoff is the Libertarian nominee for U.S. House, 25th district.  The Republican Party had sued the Secretary of State because the Secretary of State had allowed Jassenoff to run, even though he had paid his filing fee with a personal check instead of a check on a campaign bank account.  Republican Party of Florida v Byrd, Leon County Circuit Court, 26-CA-1364.

Pennsylvania Democrats Challenge Green Party Statewide Petition

Posted on by August 13, 2026
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On August 10, individuals associated with the Pennsylvania Democratic party filed a challenge to the Green Party’s statewide petition.  The challenge says there aren’t enough valid signatures.  5,000 are required.  See this story.

This is the first time a Pennsylvania Green statewide petition has been challenged for not having enough signatures since 2006.  The party’s presidential nominee was challenged in 2020 but the issue was the paperwork involving substitution, not the number of signatures.