On July 12, 2016, Roque Rocky De La Fuente submitted a nomination petition to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, seeking to have his name placed upon the ballot for the 2016 general election as an independent candidate for President of the United States. See OCGA § 21-2-170 et seq. That same day, De La Fuente also filed notices of candidacy for his slate of presidential electors. See OCGA § 21-2-132. The Secretary of State rejected the notices of candidacy because they were submitted eleven days after the deadline set forth in OCGA § 21-2-132 d 1. The Secretary of State also rejected the nomination petition, finding that the counties had verified only 2,964 of the signatures submitted with the petition, a number far short of the 7,500 verified signatures needed to validate the petition pursuant to a recent order of a federal court in Green Party of Ga. v. Kemp, 171 FSupp3d 1340 N.D. Ga. 2016.
In response to the rejection of his notices of candidacy and nomination petition, De La Fuente filed two lawsuits. As to the notices of candidacy, he filed a complaint in federal district court for mandamus, injunctive, and declaratory relief, contending that the statutory deadline for independent candidates to file notices of candidacy is unconstitutional. The federal district court denied his emergency motion for mandamus and injunctive relief, and his appeal from that denial is now pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. As to his nomination petition, De La Fuente filed a petition in the Superior Court of Fulton County for mandamus, injunctive, and declaratory relief, seeking to compel the Secretary of State to place his name upon the ballot, and asserting that the Secretary has a duty to independently verify the signatures submitted in connection with his nomination petition. The Secretary moved to dismiss the lawsuit in superior court, arguing that he had no duty as a matter of law to examine a nomination petition in the absence of a notice of candidacy filed within the time required by OCGA § 21 2 132 d 1. The superior court granted the motion to dismiss, and De La Fuente appeals.1 After reviewing the record and the briefs, we find no error, and we affirm.
