By Nick Divito:
Minor political parties can challenge Pennsylvania rules that require them to shoulder the costs when major parties challenge their ballot petitions, the 3rd Circuit ruled.
“It would be a sad irony indeed if the state that prides itself on being the cradle of American liberty had unlawfully restrictive ballot access laws,” the court’s 54-page opinion published Wednesday states.
The Constitution Party, the Green Party and the Libertarian Party sued Pennsylvania in May 2012 over the state’s election law, which has been on the books since 1937 and requires minor parties to gather signatures to get their candidate on the ballot. Their challenge took aim at a provision of the law that requires minor parties to shoulder the cost when their nominations are challenged by the major parties – which almost always happens because the major parties don’t want to lose votes.
One catalyst for the case was the order for presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate to pay $81,000 after a court determined that their signature-gathering efforts “involved fraud and deception of massive proportions.”
It marked the first time costs were ever imposed pursuant to that law, “and the reverberations from that decision have been significant,” Judge Kent Jordan wrote for the three-judge appellate panel.
Read the full article here.
Thanks to Ballot Access News for the link.