Jenness v. Fortson, 599 F.3d 1276 (11th Cir. 2010). · Go Syfert
Jenness v. Fortson, 599 F.3d 1276 (11th Cir. 2010). Cases Citing This Book View Copy Cite
9 citation events (9 in the last 25 years) across 3 distinct courts.
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At page 1277 cited at this page2 citing cases
  • Martin Cowen v. Sec'y of State for the State of Georgia, No. 24-13164 (11th Cir. Nov. 18, 2025).unpublished
    And we followed that approach, explaining that our caselaw “and the Supreme Court have upheld Georgia’s 5% rule before.” Coffield v. Kemp, 599 F.3d 1276, 1277 (11th Cir. 2010).
  • Martin Cowen v. Georgia Sec'y of State, 960 F.3d 1339 (11th Cir. 2020).unpublished 2 cites
    Finally, in Cartwright v. Barnes, 304 F.3d 1138 , 1142–44 (11th Cir. 2002), and Coffield v. Handel, 599 F.3d 1276, 1277 (11th Cir. 2010), we upheld Georgia’s ballot-access requirements in different contexts, as discussed more fully below.
Retrieving the full opinion text from the archive…
Jenness
v.
Fortson
09-13277.
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Mar 19, 2010.
Published opinion
599 F.3d 1276
2010 WL 986807
Edmondson, Marcus, Barbour.
Published
PER CURIAM:

Appellant-Plaintiff Coffield sought access to the 2008 general election ballot as an independent candidate to represent Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. She was not on the ballot. Briefly stated, she was unable to collect a sufficient number of signatures to satisfy Georgia’s requirement that an independent candidate submit a nomination petition signed by at least 5% of the total number of registered voters eligible to vote in the last election for the position the candidate seeks. Ga. Code Ann. § 21-2-170. This appeal presents one issue: whether the district court erred when it dismissed Coffield’s constitutional challenge for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). We conclude it did not.

Coffield claims that Georgia’s 5% rule is too burdensome; she alleges no independent candidate for the House of Representations in Georgia has met the requirement since 1964 and that no minor party candidate has ever met it. But she does not allege how many candidates have tried. According to the Complaint, Coffield’s own petitioning effort resulted in about 2000 signatures, less than 1% of the eligible pool and about 13,000 signatures short of what the rule required.

Our Court and the Supreme Court have upheld Georgia’s 5% rule before. See Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431, 91 S.Ct. 1970, 1974-76, 29 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971) (stressing lack of restrictions on write-in candidates and on the obtaining of signatures for nominating petitions); Cartwright v. Barnes, 304 F.3d 1138, 1140-42 (11th Cir.2002); see also Swanson v. Worley, 490 F.3d 894, 910 (11th Cir.2007) (upholding Alabama’s 3% requirement where no independent or minor party candidate had obtained ballot access when nothing indicated that similar potential candidates had sought ballot access). The pertinent laws of Georgia have not changed materially since the decisions in Jenness and Cartwright were made.

AFFIRMED.