A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a Bloomington mayoral hopeful over access to the November general election ballot.
Joe Davis filed the lawsuit in late August after the Monroe County Election Board rejected his challenge to the disqualification of signatures he had collected.
The defendants include the Monroe County Voter Registration Office, the Indiana Election Division and Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales.
Davis had hoped to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate. But he fell 14 short of the 352 signatures needed by the June 30 deadline. Several hundred others were disqualified.
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Davis had helped unregistered supporters fill out and submit their registration applications. Some of those signatures were disqualified because they were not registered at the time their signatures were collected.
Indiana has a seven-day waiting period after an application is submitted for a voter registration to become valid.
In his ruling, Special Judge Lucas Rudisill rejected Davis’ claim that the waiting period is “unduly burdensome.”
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Rudisill continued, “It appears to be simply (Davis’) own oversight in failing to understand the voter registration and verification process in relation to the Petition of Nomination process that is to blame for his purportedly narrowly missing the timeframe within which to submit a successfully supported Petition of Nomination.”
The case’s dismissal means Democratic nominee Kerry Thomson is the only candidate who will appear on the November ballot.
Davis said he plans to appeal the ruling.
