ALLENTOWN – A federal lawsuit from Pennsylvania’s Libertarian, Constitution and Green parties arguing that the state requirements for collecting in-person signatures to qualify for a general election ballot are unconstitutional in light of the coronavirus pandemic has been discontinued.
Those political parties, plus their candidates Steve Scheetz, Kevin Gaughen, Alan Smith, Timothy Runkle, Bob Goodrich and Justin Magill first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 14, versus Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary Kathy Boockvar and Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan M. Marks.
Pennsylvania designates “minor” political parties as those which receive less than 15 percent of registered voters statewide and “political bodies” as organizations that don’t overcome a given threshold of votes cast in the most recent general election.
Candidates of such parties are required to be witnessed collecting a certain number of voter signatures in person, in order to appear in the general election. For this year’s election, the deadline for which to collect the signatures is Aug. 3.
“The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 and the various ‘stay at home’ orders issued by Governor Wolf make it unlawful and practically impossible to gather signatures for nomination papers in Pennsylvania,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Governor’s new remote rules for notaries and witnesses demonstrate that requiring in-person contact to satisfy Pennsylvania’s petitioning requirements is not presently possible. Further, it will remain difficult if not practically impossible to collect signatures after emergency measures are lifted, because personal contact with large numbers of people during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to present an unacceptable risk to the public health.”
According to the plaintiffs, the usual requirements of signature collection should be waived due to the coronavirus pandemic and the level of danger that would be involved with obtaining them.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Edward G. Smith denied the political parties’ motion for a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction on July 14.
Smith said that while the plaintiffs first argue that they are entitled to relief because Pennsylvania has failed to provide them with any procedure for qualifying for the Nov. 3, 2020 general election ballot, the Court found this was not the case as the ballot access requirements established by the court’s Feb. 1, 2018 order in Constitution Party of Pa. remained in effect, which gives the plaintiffs a possible way to access the ballot.
As a result, the question becomes “what level of burden these ballot access requirements would impose on the plaintiffs, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Smith found that the burden was “intermediate” and “not as severe as they argue.”
Counsel for Wolf recently said the political parties had not proven their case.
“Plaintiffs have again failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims, that they will be irreparably harmed absent an injunction or that an injunction favors the public interest,” Wolf’s lawyers wrote.
“Nor are these ‘new events’ sufficient to disturb the status quo as the Third Circuit decides the merits of Plaintiffs’ appeal on an expedited basis.”
An appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit met with a similar lack of success.
UPDATE
On Aug. 14, the plaintiffs abandoned their lawsuit, believing they had not had the opportunity for a fair hearing of their case at both the trial and appellate levels.
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a), plaintiffs hereby dismiss all claims asserted in this case,” the plaintiffs’ notice said.
“Present circumstances compel plaintiffs to take this action despite their profound concern that defendants’ failure to include Governor Wolf’s two stay-at-home orders in the parties’ joint evidentiary submission, in violation of the parties’ agreement, prejudiced plaintiffs’ right to a full and fair hearing on the merits of their claims, including in the proceedings before the Court of Appeals.”
The plaintiffs were represented by Drew Gray Miller of Anderson & Labovitz in Pittsburgh, Mark R. Brown in Columbus, Ohio and Oliver B. Hall for the Center for Competitive Democracy, in Washington, D.C.
The defendants were represented by Daniel T. Brier, Donna A. Walsh and Richard L. Armezzani of Myers Brier & Kelly, in Scranton.
The intervening Pennsylvania Democratic Party was represented by Clifford B. Levine of Cohen & Grigsby, in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 5:20-cv-02299
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com