A couple ballot petition freedom lawsuits are working their way through the federal courts.
The tireless Richard Winger of Ballot Access News has more:
Today, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Nebraska challenging a state law banning out-of-state petition circulators, among other things:
On December 16, the ACLU Voting Rights office filed a lawsuit in federal court against three Nebraska ballot access restrictions: (1) a law passed in 2007 that requires statewide independent candidate petitions (for office other than president) to include at least 50 signatures from each of 31 counties; (2) a law passed in 2008 that makes it illegal for out-of-state circulators to work in the state; (3) an older law that requires petitions that are circulated by a paid circulator to have printed in 16-point type, and in red, “This petition is circulated by a paid circulator.”
In Arizona, the Green Party is challenging a similar restriction on out-of-state petition gatherers:
On January 11, a U.S. District Court in Phoenix will hear the Green Party’s case against the state’s ban on out-of-state circulators for petitions to put a new party on the ballot. Another issue in that case is whether the February 2010 deadline for new party petitions can be enforced against the Green Party, since the legislature moved that deadline to an earlier date and made the change effective in 2010, after the Green Party’s petitioning effort had already started.
