It looks like a couple of Republican candidates running for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter will have to sue their way onto the ballot after Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office tossed their petitions as invalid.
Both Brad Dempsey and Carl Andersen are planning to ask a court to reverse the decision.
Dempsey issued a statement calling his court challenge a “First Amendment audit of the Secretary of State’s performance of its duties.”
“To ensure that the Secretary of State’s Office has faithfully fulfilled its duty to honor each voter’s First Amendment right to nominate their candidate of choice, we must carefully review how the Secretary of State’s Office has carried out its role and reached its decision to reject such a substantial amount of voter signatures on my petition and the petitions of other candidates,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey submitted 2,232 signatures but 983 were denied by Griswold’s office. He only needed 1,500, but was left with 1,249.
Anderson fared worse. Of the 4,462 signatures submitted by his campaign, Griswold’s office kicked out 3,417 signatures leaving him with 1,045.
Republican Erik Aadland’s petitions failed to qualify so he went the assembly route to get on the ballot for the 7th congressional District. The petition from Republican Giulianna “Jewels” Gray who was running for Congress in the new 8th district was also rejected after too many signatures were rejected.
Something is definitely amiss.
The records of all rejected signatures and the reasons for rejection are on file at the Secretary of State’s office, but not available to the public online.
Not exactly transparent, but openness is not something we’ve come to expect from Griswold.