This database consolidates and tracks litigation concerning the effect of the pandemic on election law. The purpose of this tool is to provide an interactive list of relevant cases that can be searched by issue, court, status, and jurisdiction.
Case Details
Libertarian Party v. Virginia State Board of Elections
Closed
Libertarian Party v. Virginia State Board of Elections, No. 3:20-cv-00349 (E.D. Va.) |
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| Case Summary | Third parties and their candidates for US House, Senate, and President sued the Virginia State Board of Elections to eliminate the petition signature requirement for the 2020 election due to COVID. After a one day bench trial on 7/13/20, the Court concluded that the signature requirements were unconstitutional as applied to the plaintiffs this election year. The deadline for collecting signatures for House and Senate candidates was extended to August 1, and the signature threshold number was reduced to 35% of the statutory figure. Candidates for President had the signature threshold reduced to 50% of the statutory figure. A previous consent decree entered in the case allows petition circulators to witness signatures over the internet so long as the circulator can actually see the voter sign the form. The original form must also be returned to the circulator so that the circulator can sign the affidavit. | |
| Filed | 06/05/2020 | |
| State | Virginia | |
| Type of Court | Federal | |
| Circuit | Fourth Circuit | |
| Status | Closed (Consent Decree: Deadline for the Constitution Party of VA to appear as candidates for the House and Senate extended to 8/1, plaintiffs seeking to appear as candidates for President and Vice President can appear on ballot if they submit signatures of qualified voters of at least 5% of total petition signatures required) | |
| Last Updated | 03/13/2021 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Petition Signature Requirement (Threshold Number, Deadline/Time to Collect, Witness/Notary) | |
| Complaint(s) | 06/05/2020: Complaint filed. | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 07/02/2020: Order/Ruling, Partially pusuant to a consent decree, the court dismissed plaintiff's claims with prejudice and ordered that (i) plaintiff Bupp will be required to submit only 35% of the signatures required by the law to qualify for the ballot (350 instead of 1000), (ii) the deadline for submitting those signatures will be extended from June 9 to July 31 for plaintiff Bupp, and (iii) the petition-gatherer witness requirement can be satisfied over the internet, as long as the witness can see the voter sign the form. | |
| 07/10/2020: Order/Ruling, The court declines to enter summary judgement for either party. Due to the unusual circumstances imposed by the pandemic, the court finds that prior cases are of little help is asessing the burden imposed by the signature requirements. Becuase neither party had provided sufficient evidence for the court to make a ruling, the court denies both motions for summary judgement. | ||
| 07/15/2020: Order/Ruling, Partial Consent Decree and Final Judgment: Deadline for the Constitution Party of VA to appear as candidates for the House and Senate extended to 8/1, plaintiffs seeking to appear as candidates for President and Vice President can appear on ballot if they submit signatures of qualified voters of at least 50% of total petition signatures required | ||
| 07/15/2020: Order/Ruling, Bench Trial entering judgment in favor of Plaintiffs but denying TRO as moot. | ||
