Just prior to Monday’s deadline, New Jersey US Senator Bob Menendez filed petitions to run for re-election as an independent.    He filed 2465 signatures, triple the number needed to quality (800).

The embattled New Jersey Democrat is facing federal charges of fraud, extortion, bribery and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt between 2018 and 2022 – while serving as chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Menendez pulled out of the Democratic Party primary and reportedly had personally collected signatures to get ballot access.

GEORGIA LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL FOR EASIER PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT ACCESS

On March 28, the Georgia legislature passed an omnibus election law bill that eases ballot access for the presidential nominees of unqualified minor parties.  SB 189 says that if a party has qualified to place its presidential nominee on the ballot of at least twenty other states, then that candidate may automatically appear on the Georgia ballot.

Governor Brian Kemp has not yet acted on the bill.  The bill also makes it easier for a voter to be challenged, and it creates an obstacle for homeless voters.  Current law lets them receive postal mail relating to election administration at any place where they can receive postal mail, but the bill says all such mail must be sent to the county elections office, and the homeless person must travel there to receive the mail.  This has made the bill controversial, although it still seems unlikely that the Governor will veto the bill.

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On May 31, the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., campaign filed a ballot access lawsuit against the Nevada Secretary of State.  Team Kennedy v Aguilar, 2:24cv-01027.  The case has not yet been assigned to any particular U.S. District Court Judge.

The main focus of the lawsuit is to dispute the contention of the Nevada Secretary of State that the petition, which has already been completed, is invalid because it doesn’t list a vice-presidential nominee.  Kennedy argues that it violates Equal Protection to require independent presidential candidates to have chosen their vice-presidential running mates so early in the year, when the two major parties do not need to choose their v-p nominees until August.

The lawsuit also argues that the petition form itself, which is an official state form, has no room to list more than a single candidate, and the law says an independent candidate petition can list only one candidate.  Also the Complaint points out that the Secretary of State’s office had told the Kennedy campaign that a vice-presidential candidate need not be listed on the form.  This is undisputed, although the Secretary of State says an employee made an error.

The lawsuit also attacks the law that requires an independent presidential candidate to pay a fee of $250.  The lawsuit will argue that the fee is redundant and serves no purpose, because the purpose of filing fees is to show that the candidate has a modicum of support, but the petition (if successfully completed) already serves that purpose.  Furthermore Nevada does not require the presidential nominee of a qualified party to pay a fee in order to appear on the general election ballot.