This New York Times has this op-ed by Quin Hilyer, an Alabama resident and an observer of Alabama politics and government. It predicts that Roy Moore will win the September 26 Republican run-off primary for U.S. Senate, and also the December 12, 2017 special election.
There won’t be anyone on the ballot in the general election except the Republican and Democratic nominees, because Alabama petition requirements for non-presidential office are so severe. No one has completed the Alabama 3% petition for statewide office since the deadline was moved to the date of the first primary, which happened in 2005. Alabama, Montana and New Mexico are the only states in which the non-presidential statewide independent petition requirement is higher than 2% of the last vote cast.
Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.
Don’t NM and Montana have an easier path for parties though? For example, we can get the presidential on more easily in NM and the retention requirement was lower than in AL. So right now LP is ballot qualified in NM, but in AL we would not have been able to get Johnson on with a party label except by getting 35k plus valid sig, and even then he would have had to had 20% plus one, which is much higher than he got in NM let alone any other state. I am less sure of the particulars in Montana (one of the relatively few states I have not worked in) but I seem to remember they are also less onerous as far as the path to becoming a recognized party in the first place and keeping that status as well.
Ballot access stuff must be in constitutions since gerrymander incumbent HACKS are totally corrupt about election stuff — ie doing ANY thing to stop competition — gerrymanders, unequal ballot access laws, etc.
SCOTUS hacks and MORON lawyers continue to be brain dead ignorant that each election is N-E-W (since 1968) —
ie EQUAL ballot access tests for all candidates for the same office in the same area.
Yes, Paullie, you’re right. The Montana party petition is 5,000 signatures, much less than the statewide non-presidential petition. And the New Mexico party petition is one-half of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, much less than the independent 3% petition. So Alabama is uniquely repressive for statewide petitions, if the group isn’t fussy about whether it uses the independent petition or the new party petition.
I have hopes that the 2018 Montana legislature will ease the independent non-presidential petition, because this year that petition was struck down as applied to special elections, and the legislature might fix it for all independent petitions, special or regular.
Mo Brooks should endorse Moore, then Moore should help Brooks get Shelby’s seat.