On May 14, the Virginia Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators. This is the third such case to be filed against Virginia on this issue in the last six months. The new case is Libertarian Party of Virginia and Darryl Bonner v Judd. Here is the eleven-page complaint.
The first such case was filed by Texas Governor Rick Perry. The U.S. District Court said the ban is almost certainly unconstitutional, but that Perry had filed the lawsuit too late (only 70 days before the presidential primary), so injunctive relief was denied. Before the case could get a ruling on declaratory relief, Perry and the other intervening presidential candidates dropped the lawsuit.
Then a new lawsuit was filed by a candidate for U.S. House in the June Democratic congressional primary. But then, after he filed the lawsuit, he was told he had enough valid signatures, even when the ones collected by a resident of the District of Columbia were set aside. So, he dropped his lawsuit.
Other states where such lawsuits may be filed might include Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, as well as the District of Columbia.
The Washington Times has an article on A15 today on this case. TWT also has an article starting on page A1 above the fold about third party candidates and mentions Governor Johnson by name on the jump page A5. Immediately below the article on both A1 and A5 is another article on Ron Paul. Additionally there is a Commentary by Wayne Root on B1 regarding bailing out Europe. Governor Johnson is also mentioned in a two paragraph blurb on A2 in the “Inside the Beltway” column with a header “Wooing the Paulites”. I found the articles to be fair and there’s no mention of Lyndon LaRouche! Shhh!
It’s really too bad LPVA even had to file this lawsuit.
Going forward, hopefully more volunteers will sacrifice their time and get signatures so that getting paid petitioners from out of state will be a non issue.