Third-party

No third-party candidate for the U.S. House has ever satisfied the 5% requirement since it was adopted in Georgia in 1943.

The ruling could help 30 to 40 candidates gather enough signatures before an Aug. 14 deadline, said Bryan Sells, an attorney for the plaintiffs, Libertarian Party nominee Martin Cowen and Green Party nominee Jimmy Cooper III, both of whom are seeking U.S. House seats.

“They’ll at least have a better shot than they would have otherwise because of all the time lost,” Sells said. “We’re grateful that the court saw fit it was not appropriate to require the full number of signatures when petitioning was unlawful for so long because of the governor’s shelter-in-place order.”

Under the judge’s order, Cowen would still have to collect at least 17,152 signatures to run in the 13th Congressional District, and Cooper would need over 14,503 to run in the 8th Congressional District. Candidates running for local offices with fewer registered voters face a lower number of signatures required to get on the ballot.

Candidates had to declare their intent to run for office in March, so no new candidates can start their campaigns

‘No one can debate that conditions throughout the state, country and world are anything but normal.’ Eleanor Ross U.S. District Judge

at this point.

The secretary of state’s office in May had proposed the 30% reduction in signatures for third-party candidates. “While it was not something the secretary had the legal authority to do on his own, we think it’s a fair result,” said Walter Jones, a spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “We are taking steps to notify federal and state third-party and independent candidates, as well as notifying counties so that they can notify local candidates.”