BOGGS, Chief Judge. As my colleagues’ opinions for the court appear to me to be a bit succinct, I write to provide some additional facts and reasoning in support of the same result.

Ralph Nader ran for President of the United States in 2004. Under Ohio law, he needed to collect 5000 signatures on his nominating petition to be placed on the Ohio general-election ballot. Circulators of Nader nominating petitions collected over 14,000 signatures, but local election boards invalidated approximately 8000 of them, leaving 6464 signatures. J. Kenneth Blackwell, then Ohio’s Secretary of State, certified Nader for placement on the ballot. However, a group of Ohio Democratic voters challenged Nader’s signatures, and Blackwell directed an attorney in his office to hold a hearing regarding the validity of the remaining 6464 signatures. After considering testimony and other evidence, the staff attorney invalidated 2700 more signatures. After these invalidations, Nader had fewer than 5000 valid signatures, and Blackwell removed him from the ballot on September 28, 2004. In October 2004, a federal district court denied Nader’s request for injunctive relief, the state courts denied his request for mandamus relief, and this court denied his emergency appeal. In November 2005, we dismissed his regular appeal as moot.

In this § 1983 case, filed in September 2006, Nader sued Blackwell in his personal capacity for allegedly violating Nader’s First Amendment rights. According to Nader, Blackwell violated his rights when he applied Ohio Revised Code § 3503.06, which requires that petition circulators reside and be registered to vote in Ohio, to Nader’s nominating petitions. The district court dismissed Nader’s suit, holding that Nader lacked standing and, alternatively, that Blackwell enjoyed both qualified and absolute immunity. We hold that Nader has standing to bring this suit, but we affirm the district court’s holding that Blackwell enjoys qualified immunity.