On February 25, the Arizona House of Representatives passed HB 2608. It makes it far more difficult for a member of a small qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot. Existing law makes the number of signatures 1% of a party’s registration. The bill converts that to one-fourth of 1% of all the registered voters for statewide office, and one-half of 1% for U.S. House and legislature.
It is irrational to raise the number of signatures for primary ballot access, since no minor party primary ballot in Arizona has ever been crowded. It is extraordinarily rare for a minor party primary ballot in Arizona to have more than a single candidate listed.
The bill passed on a party line vote. Every Republican who voted on the bill voted “yes”. Every Democrat who voted on the bill voted “No.” Currently the only two ballot-qualified parties in Arizona, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, are the Libertarian and Green Party.
Is there still a provision for a write-in candidate to win the nomination of a “new” party with a plurality of the vote (which could be only one vote)?
That’s how I, and many others, have in recent years gotten nominated by the Green Party and the now-defunct Americans Elect Party.
http://williamsburgwaterfront.blogspot.com/2012/11/richard-grayson-wins-nomination-of.html
That makes two states in which Republican legislators have passed bills in one house of the legislature to make primary ballot access worse for small parties. The other such state is South Dakota.
More robot gerrymander hacks obeying the COMMAND Orders from their HQ in Devil City ??? Duh.
The bill doesn’t change the number of votes needed to nominate someone by write-in votes in the primary.
Wow, it seems like over the last few years, the Republicans have been even worse than the Democrats are when it comes to fair ballot access.