Socialist Candidate Suing Mississippi

The Natural Law Party is no longer a national party, but it is still a qualified party in Mississippi. Last year, Brian Moore, a Florida resident who was the Socialist Party's presidential nominee, contacted the NLP about their ballot line in Mississippi (the Socialist Party is not qualified here, and it would have been more difficult to qualify as an independent). The NLP's state executive committee, through a conference call, nominated Moore. ~~ SR

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From Ballot Access News:

The Fifth Circuit will hear oral arguments in Moore v Hosemann in New Orleans, the week of November 2-6. The case concerns the Mississippi Secretary of State’s refusal to accept presidential elector paperwork for Brian Moore, the 2008 Socialist Party presidential candidate. The Secretary of State said the paperwork arrived ten minutes too late. However, the Mississippi law setting the deadline does not specify any particular hour for receiving such paperwork. Certain other election-related deadlines do specify 5 p.m. in the election law, but this deadline doesn’t.

Moore also argues that if the Secretary of State says he had administratively set the closing deadline at 5 p.m., that would have violated Article II of the U.S. Constitution, because that part of the Constitution, setting forth rules for presidential elector selection, says only state legislatures can set forth rules for that topic.

A somewhat similar case is pending in the 5th Circuit against Louisiana, concerning the Libertarian Party, but no oral argument date has been set for that case, called Libertarian Party v Dardenne.