On Friday, the lawsuit that Bloomington resident Joe Davis filed over access to the Nov. 7 ballot as an independent mayoral candidate was dismissed.
The ruling on Davis’s claim was by Lucas Rudisill, who is the magistrate judge out of Greene County, who was assigned the case.
Davis filed the lawsuit after he fell 14 short of the 352 signatures that he had to collect in order to be listed as a choice on the ballot. Democratic Party nominee Kerry Thomson will remain the only candidate for Bloomington mayor on the Nov. 7 ballot.
The ruling came after absentee ballots had been sent to voters who had applied for them, and with early in-person voting set to start next week, on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
There’s a legal principle called the Purcell Doctrine that says the courts should not change election rules when an election is fast approaching, because of the risk of confusion. But in his ruling, Rudisill did not rely crucially on the Purcell Doctrine, even if it was a factor. “Purcell does not deprive a trial court of subject matter jurisdiction over election disputes that arise on the eve of elections…,” Rudisill wrote.
In his ruling Rudisill dug into the subject matter of a 7-day waiting period that is applied after voter registration application materials are submitted to a registration office. Continue reading “Bloomington mayoral ballot access case dismissed, highlights 7-day waiting period for voter registration”