This morning, the Supreme Court released its order list indicating which cases it will and will not be taking up in the new term. Notably, the Court declined to address Georgia laws that have kept third-party candidates off election ballots in the state for decades.
Candidates for federal elected office in Georgia face different hurdles depending on which party they belong to. Republicans and Democrats get on the ballot automatically, since each party received at least 20 percent of the vote in previous elections. But for any third-party candidate running for a districted position, like in the House of Representatives, they must first collect signatures from 5 percent of all registered voters in their district—between 20,000 and 27,000. That task has proved so daunting that no third-party House candidate from Georgia has achieved it in nearly six decades.
