Citizens in Charge

The James Madison Center for Free Speech issued a press release today regarding events unfolding in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District:

On Tuesday, Herb Lux, an independent candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, and three of his supporters sued Virginia to protect their right to circulate and sign a candidate petition in support of Herb Lux’s candidacy. The State Board of Elections rejected a majority of Mr. Lux’s petitions and refused to certify him for the ballot, citing a Virginia law that requires petition circulators to be residents of the congressional district. The group has asked the court to rule that the residency requirement violates their freedom of speech and to order the State Board of Elections to count the excluded signatures.

The Board of Elections rejected Mr. Lux’s signatures because Virginia law requires all petition circulators to live in the congressional district. When applied to Mr. Lux, the law prevents him from circulating his own petitions. The First Amendment clearly protects Mr. Lux’s freedom to circulate his own candidate petitions. It also protects his supporters’ freedom to help further his candidacy by signing a petition. If the Board counts all of the signatures collected by Mr. Lux, the group is more than confident that he will have collected more than the 1,000 signatures necessary to appear on the November ballot.

It is great to see citizens standing up for the First Amendment right to petition. To read the rest of the press release visit the James Madison Center’s webpage here.

Additionally, the James Madison Center’s James Bopp will be speaking at the U.S. Conference on Initiative & Referendum, which is being co-hosted by Citizens in Charge Foundation and Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe at the end of this month in San Francisco. For more information on the conference and to register to attend for free click here.