As reported earlier, the New Mexico Secretary of State earlier determined that Jon Barrie does not have enough valid signatures on his petition to be on the November ballot. He is the U.S. Senate nominee of the Independent American Party. If he gets on the ballot, he will be the first candidate on a general election ballot for U.S. Senate in New Mexico, other than the Democratic and Republican nominees, since 1996.
This story explains that the state checked his petition using an automated program that automatically rejects all signatures unless they are an exact match with that voter’s name on the voter registration rolls. Thus, it rejected a signer whose name was “Jean” on one document, but “Jeanne” on the other; and it rejected a signer whose name was “Chris” on one document and “Christopher” on the other document. The story does not say if Barrie will sue to get on the ballot. Thanks to Doug Carver for the link.
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Wow, this is the same idiotic crap that got pulled in Maryland recently. The standard should be that if they can find a person on the voter roles, then the signature is valid. It is quite obvious and can even be proven if Jean is Jeanne or Chris is Christopher. This is all just an excuse to prevent petitions from qualifying for the ballot.