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The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has granted CCD’s appeal on behalf of David Gill, an independent candidate for U.S. House in Illinois who challenged the constitutionality of Illinois’ ballot access requirements for such candidates.

In a decision entered on June 18, 2020, the Court of Appeals reversed the District Court’s decision upholding Illinois’ requirements and remanded the case to the District Court for a decision on the merits. The Court of Appeals ruled that the District Court erred by failing to conduct its own analysis and relying instead on the Court of Appeals’ decision in Tripp v. Scholz, which upheld the challenged requirements. Even if the requirements had been previously upheld, the Court of Appeals concluded, “[t]he district court erred by automatically concluding that the holding in Tripp controls this case instead of applying the fact-intensive analysis required by the Anderson-Burdick balancing test.

This decision is especially important because the Court of Appeals acknowledged that Tripp relied on a critical factual error that undermines its rationale. It therefore acknowledged that “Tripp’s applicability to this case is limited” (Opinion at 11 & n.7). As a result, on remand, Gill will be free to attack the constitutionality of Illinois’ requirements without the burden of distinguishing the Court of Appeals’ decision upholding them in Tripp.

Illinois’ requirements for independent candidates for U.S. House are among the most burdensome in the nation. They include a 5 percent signature requirement, 90-day petitioning period and notarization requirement. No independent candidate for U.S. House has been able to comply with them, when the candidate’s petitions were challenged, since 1974.

On June 21, 2020 — a Sunday — the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals entered an order denying the State Board of Elections’ motion to stay the petitioning relief the district court granted to Illinois’ minor party and independent candidates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court of Appeals’ decision effectively guarantees that Illinois’ minor party and independent candidates can rely on the district court’s order when seeking to qualify for Illinois’ ballot in the 2020 general election.

The State Board of Elections had argued that it would be unable to print absentee ballots in time to send overseas and military voters, but the Court of Appeals rejected that argument: “We conclude that none of the evidence submitted by the Board shows that the July 20 filing deadline or the reduced signature requirement is likely to impede election officials’ ability to meet the deadline for transmitting ballots to military or overseas voters.”

This is a major victory that will support nationwide efforts to secure petitioning relief due to the COVID-19 pandemic. See press coverage here: Chicago Tribune; Capitol News Illinois; Capitol Fax; The Daily Line.

CCD Advisory Board member Mark Brown served as co-counsel in this case.

CCD has filed an emergency action in the federal district court for the District of Maryland to obtain relief from Maryland’s requirement that “new” political parties file nomination petitions with 10,000 voter signatures to become ballot-qualified. The Plaintiffs, the Maryland Green Party and Libertarian Party of Maryland, allege that the COVID-19 pandemic and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s ensuing executive orders have made petitioning unlawful and practically impossible in the state of Maryland. They seek an order that requires the State Administrator of Elections, Linda Lamone, to grant them ballot access for the 2020 general election provided they submit nomination petitions with 1,000 voter signatures by the statutory deadline of August 3rd. Both parties had already collected more than 1,000 signatures prior to the governor’s Stay-At-Home order. Read more in the Maryland Green Party’s press release or on Ballot Access News, Maryland Matters, and the Maryland Association of Counties.

Case number: 1:20-cv-01253-ELH

#Maryland #libertarians #greens #preliminaryinjunction #covid19

CCD has filed an emergency action for relief from the petitioning requirements for political parties to become ballot-qualified in Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs — the Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties of Pennsylvania — allege that Pennsylvania’s 5,000-signature petitioning requirement is unconstitutional as applied, because it is both unlawful and practically impossible to obtain signatures on nomination petitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Governor Wolf’s ensuing executive orders requiring social distancing and other measures to protect the public health. The plaintiffs request that the Court grant them ballot access for the 2020 general election based on their prior history of complying with Pennsylvania’s ballot access requirements and other evidence that they enjoy substantial support among the Pennsylvania electorate. Read coverage of the filing in Bloomberg Law here.

Case number: 5:20-cv-02299-EGS – Libertarian Party of PA v. Wolf

#Pennsylvania #complaint #libertarians #greens #constitutionPA #preliminaryinjunction #covid19

Court Orders Illinois State Board of Elections to Place Libertarian, Green and Independent Candidate Plaintiffs on 2020 General Election Ballot for any Office for Which They Qualified in Either 2018 or 2016, and Lowers Signature Requirement and Extends Filing Deadline for All Others, Due to Coronavirus Public Health Crisis.

UPDATE: On May 15, 2020 the District Court entered an order moving the filing deadline from August 7, 2020 to July 20, 2020, but otherwise leaving intact the relief granted in its April 23, 2o2o order.

CHICAGO, IL., April 23, 2020 – Chief Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois today ordered the Illinois State Board of Elections to place Libertarian Party of Illinois (“LPIL”) and Illinois Green Party (“ILGP”) candidates on Illinois’ 2020 general election ballot for each office for which the respective party ran a candidate in either the 2018 or 2016 general election. For all other offices, the Court lowered the number of signatures that candidates must submit on petitions by 90 percent, extended the filing deadline from June 22 to August 7, enjoined enforcement of the requirement that petitions be notarized, and authorized voters to sign petitions and submit them by email or other electronic means. Independent candidates David Gill and Marcus Throneburg won the same relief.

In an opinion accompanying its order, the Court stated that the relief granted was intended to accommodate “the significant restrictions on new party and independent candidates’ ability to collect signatures in light of the unprecedented limitations on public gatherings required to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

Plaintiffs LPIL, ILGP, Gill and Throneburg, together with several Illinois voters, filed their lawsuit on April 2, 2020, after Governor J.B. Pritzker failed to respond to their requests for relief from Illinois’ ballot access requirements and the State Board of Elections stated that it lacked authority to grant it. In a motion for preliminary injunction filed on April 3, 2020, the Plaintiffs argue that they “cannot lawfully comply” with those requirements due to the emergency orders that Governor Pritzker entered in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Under Illinois law, minor political parties and independent candidates qualify for the ballot by submitting petitions signed by the requisite number of voters. But Governor Pritzker’s Executive Order 2020-10, issued March 20, 2020, provides that all individuals in Illinois must “stay at home or at their place of residence” except for purposes of conducting “essential” activities or functions. Petitioning is not defined as an “essential” activity. The Plaintiffs therefore alleged that Illinois law, as presently applied, violates their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

“Chief Judge Pallmeyer’s order today is well-reasoned and firmly grounded in Supreme Court precedent,” said Oliver Hall, founder and legal counsel at the Center for Competitive Democracy, which represents the Plaintiffs. “It grants the relief necessary not only to protect the Plaintiffs’ core constitutional rights, but also the right of all Illinois voters to cast their votes effectively in the November 2020 general election.

As a result of the order, the Libertarian Party and Green Party presidential tickets will be on Illinois’ 2020 general election ballot, as will both parties’ candidates for U.S. Senate. Additionally, GPIL is qualified to run candidates for U.S. House in Illinois’ fifth and twelfth districts.

The case is captioned Libertarian Party of Illinois, et. al. v. Prtizker, et al., No. 1:20-cv-02112 (N.D. Ill.).

#illinois #pressrelease #libertarians #greens

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has agreed to suspend the statutory requirement that ballot-qualified minor parties hold in-person conventions on April 18. This means that the Green Party of Texas and Libertarian Party of Texas are free to reschedule their conventions and/or hold them online, if they wish.

#covid19 #pandemic #texas #thirdparties #conventions

CCD files lawsuit to challenge Illinois’ petitioning requirements for minor parties and independent candidates during the coronavirus pandemic. To qualify for the general election ballot under Illinois law, minor parties must collect 25,000 signatures on nomination petitions between March 24, 2020 and June 22, 2020. But that’s now impossible because Illinois Governor Pritzker has issued a “stay at home” order, which makes it unlawful to approach people and ask them to sign petitions.

UPDATE: On April 3, 2020, the plaintiffs filed a motion requesting the Court to suspend Illinois’ petitioning requirements and place the Illinois Green Party, Libertarian Party of Illinois and independent candidate Marcus Throneburg on Illinois’ November 3, 2020 general election ballot.

#covid19 #ballotaccess #Illinois #petitions #signatures

CCD joins the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California to file this amicus brief in support of the petition for certiorari in Schmitt v. LaRose, No. 19-974. The case challenges the constitutionality of Ohio laws that give local elections officials discretion to reject ballot initiatives based on their subject matter. Initiatives deemed to be “administrative” rather than “legislative” in nature may be rejected.

#ballotinitiatives #Ohio #amicusbrief

CCD files a motion for preliminary injunction in Baines v. Dunlap, No. 1:19-cv-00509 (D. Me.), which challenges the constitutionality of Maine’s laws that make it practically impossible for non-wealthy citizens to form a new political party.

#Maine #ballotaccess #thirdparties #preliminaryinjunction

The Supreme Court ordered Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to respond to CCD’s petition for certiorari in Arizona Libertarian Party v. Hobbs, our case challenging Arizona’s laws that make it practically impossible for the Arizona Libertarian Party to run candidates in the primary election, which means the candidates are excluded from the general election ballot. A “call for response” means the Court is interested in the case.

#Arizona #SCOTUS #libertarians #certiorari