ROUNDUP: Magistrate Judge Recommends “Aspiring Spoiler” Aaron Day be Allowed on the General Election Ballot

ROUNDUP: Magistrate Judge Recommends “Aspiring Spoiler” Aaron Day be Allowed on the General Election Ballot

Independent conservative and Free Stater U.S. Senate candidate Aaron Day “caught a big break” last week “when a federal magistrate judge sided with him” in his lawsuit to get onto the general election ballot as an Independent candidate who is “aiming to play spoiler to” potential Republican nominee John Sununu. 

Day, who claims credit for spoiling then-Senator Kelly Ayotte’s 2016 reelection, is “openly campaigning on the premise of taking away votes from Republican John E. Sununu” and has amassed ballot nomination signatures from nearly 5,000 Granite Staters — way more than the 3,000 needed — to help him accomplish that goal.

Coverage by NHPR, the Boston Globe, the Union Leader, and National Journal, as well as on social media, shows Day’s campaign is gaining momentum and gathering headlines despites “the desires of leading Republicans to deny” his candidacy.  

Read more below: 

NHPR: Independent candidate gets preliminary win in fight to get on NH's Senate ballot

• The effort by Aaron Day, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, to get his name on the New Hampshire ballot in November received a boost Thursday, when a federal magistrate judge sided with him in his lawsuit against the state.
• The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office now has seven days to appeal, before a judge will formally sign off on the ruling.
• Day is a libertarian activist who is seeking to run as an independent, but was initially blocked from the ballot by state election officials. In June, Secretary of State David Scanlan twice denied Day’s filing because Day had not registered to vote in Nashua, where he recently moved to from Bedford. State law requires candidates for elected office to be registered voters where they live.
• Day filed an emergency lawsuit, arguing that the U.S. Constitution lays out the three qualifications for serving in the Senate: that the candidate be at least 30 years of age, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state at the time of the election. Day argued that the state of New Hampshire can’t impose additional hurdles.
• In a 22-page decision released Thursday, federal magistrate judge Andrea Johnstone said the state’s application of its own regulations was not "constitutionally sound.”
• “The citizens of New Hampshire are entitled to select from the group of qualified candidates for United States Senate who satisfy the constitutional requirements to be placed on the ballot,” she wrote.
• Johnstone’s recommendation that Day appear on the ballot must now be approved by federal Judge Landya McCafferty.
• Day, who is representing himself in the case, touted in an email to supporters Thursday how he successfully used artificial intelligence to help prepare his legal briefs.
• “They had the full weight of the State. Career prosecutors. Unlimited resources,” he wrote. “I had a laptop. No lawyers. No law firm. My legal team was AI.”
• In an interview Thursday, Day said he was “elated” by the ruling and has already collected more than the required 3,000 signatures he’ll need to have his name included on the November ballot.
• Day’s goal — whether he gets on the ballot or not — is not necessarily to win the Senate seat. Instead, he’s openly campaigning on the premise of taking away votes from Republican John E. Sununu, who polls show is leading in the GOP primary. Day’s campaign website includes a section titled “Stop Sununu,” with a large number of attack ads.
• Day also played spoiler in New Hampshire's 2016 Senate race, when he received nearly 18,000 votes, enough to help defeat Republican Kelly Ayotte, who lost to then-Gov. Maggie Hassan by just over 1,000 votes. At the time, Day said he was motivated by what he saw as flaws in the Republican platform.

Boston Globe: Aspiring spoiler in N.H. Senate race catches a break in his bid for ballot access

• [...] Several independent candidates have been preparing nomination papers in hopes of securing a spot on the ballot alongside the major-party Senate nominees. They need $100 and 1,500 voter signatures from each of the state’s two congressional districts. The deadline for local election officials to certify the signatures is Aug. 26.
• One of those third-party hopefuls, Aaron Day, caught a big break on Thursday, thanks to a federal magistrate judge.
• [...] Andrea K. Johnstone, a federal magistrate judge, issued a 22-page report on Thursday recommending the court order the secretary of state to accept Day’s preliminary paperwork and include him on the ballot if he meets all the other eligibility requirements. In this case, the state likely cannot require voter registration as a prerequisite to ballot access, she said, since that would effectively add to the qualifications for federal office spelled out in the US Constitution.
• [...] While independent candidates often fly under the radar, Day’s situation could stand out because of what happened a decade ago. He placed a distant third in the 2016 Senate race. But since Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan managed to unseat Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte that year by an incredibly slim margin, just 1,017 votes (0.14 percent), the 17,742 votes that Day received made him look like a spoiler.
• Day has been saying his presence on the ballot in 2026 would similarly undermine Sununu. 
• [...]

Union Leader: State House Dome: Looks like Aaron had his 'day' in federal court

• A federal magistrate has thrown a monkey wrench into the desires of leading Republicans to deny libertarian-minded Aaron Day a place on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
• As we first reported on social media, Magistrate Andrea Johnstone has recommended a federal judge overturn the decision of the Ballot Law Commission and argument of Secretary of State David Scanlan that Day be barred from running.
• [...] In 2016, Day ran as a third-party candidate and took 15,000 votes more than the margin of victory for then-Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan who unseated Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
• [...] At any rate, after the recommendation last Thursday, Day immediately took to his website to declare victory, a platform that has become a shrine for those who loathe Republican Senate frontrunner John E. Sununu.
• “I just beat the NH Attorney General’s office in federal court. No lawyers. No law firm. I represented myself, and my legal team was AI. The federal magistrate judge recommended granting my preliminary injunction: the Secretary of State should be ordered to accept my Declaration of Intent and put me on the US Senate ballot,” Day said.
• “Their office had every resource of the state. I had a laptop. The state gets 7 days to object. Bring it.”
• [...]

National Journal: A New Day

• 2016 candidate Aaron Day (I), who’s aiming to play spoiler to former Sen. John E. Sununu (R), “received a boost Thursday, when a federal magistrate judge sided with him in his lawsuit against the state” to get his name on the general election ballot. “Day, who is representing himself in the case, touted in an email to supporters Thursday how he successfully used artificial intelligence to help prepare his legal briefs.” (New Hampshire Public Radio)