Back in July, following a lawsuit from the Libertarian nominee for the 13th Congressional District Martin Cowen and the Green Party nominee for the 8th Congressional District Jimmy Cooper, U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ordered the Georgia Secretary of State to accept 30 percent fewer signatures to appear on the ballot in November.
The ruling is an attempt to give consideration to candidates who could not go door-to-door collecting signatures due to social distancing requirements and stay-at-home orders from Gov. Brian Kemp. The candidates still have to collect a number of signatures by the August 14 deadline, some 17,000 total for Cowen and more than 14,000 for Cooper.
“We were pleased with the win, although it likely won’t help our only candidate this cycle needing petitioning, Martin Cowen. Martin is in a high risk group and is not keen on going door to door during the pandemic. The CDC agrees. It’s a shame the Georgia Secretary of State and the courts don’t,” said Ryan Graham, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Georgia.
Hugh Esco, the Secretary of the Green Party of Georgia, was equally disappointed about the outcome despite the win. “Judge Ross’ order, agreeing with our position that petitioning under pandemic conditions presents a public health threat, was belied by her accepting the position of the Secretary of State that more than 30% relief would infringe on the state’s unsubtantiated interest in protecting the electorate from crowded ballots and voter confusion.”
Some estimates for the rate of successful signature petitions is 1 in 20 – meaning you have to talk to 20 people for each successful signature collected. If Cooper only had to collect 10,000 signatures, that would mean talking to 200,000 people.
“The claim is that we had two months prior to the pandemic and an extension by 31 days. The 31 days is a wash as the CDC is still recommending social distancing guidelines. Had we known all this was going to happen we could have planned to have 70% of the signatures in the first 30% of the petitioning period,” added Graham. “We’re hopeful that our efforts will help third party and Independent candidates down the ballot give Georgians real choice in 2020.”
The situation does still seem to leave third parties with some difficult requirements to make in a very confusing time. Not to mention that in Covid times, the congeniality of people towards door-to-door visitors may not be as high as usual. And of course there are still seemingly constantly changing recommendations from city, state and federal governments.
“Our government seems to be of two minds: (1) that coronavirus poses such a threat that extraordinary measures are required to protect human health; and simultaneously (2) that this threat should not be prioritized over economic interests or efforts to protect incumbents from democratic challenge,” said Esco.
It may be a long November for third parties this year.
