No one Files for Any Office in North Dakota Minor Party Primaries

Filing for the June North Dakota primary closed on April 11. The Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party both are entitled to their own primaries, but no one filed in either party’s primary for any public office. This has no effect on the presidential part of the ballot, of course, and those parties will be on for president.

North Dakota has few minor party candidates. They are discouraged by a law that says they must poll 300 votes in the open primary. Similar laws were found unconstitutional in both Washington and Minnesota in 2004. North Dakota is the only state that still requires a party candidate whose name is on the primary ballot to not only outpoll any other candidates seeking the same nomination, but also to worry about polling a specified minimum number of votes.


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