On January 18, the new chief of the New Mexico Elections Department, Ernest Ortega, told the New Mexico Libertarian Party that it is still ballot-qualified. However, this decision isn’t in writing yet. The Libertarian Party had thought it was disqualified in November 2004 for failing to poll one-half of 1% of the vote for president. It had only polled .31% for president.

The law is very confusing and has been interpreted in contrary ways in the past. It says a party is disqualified “If two successive general elections are held without at least one of the party’s candidates on the ballot or if the total votes cast for the party’s candidates for governor or president, provided that the party has a candidate seeking election to either of those offices, in a general election do not equal one-half of 1% for governor or president, as applicable.” The party did not have a candidate for governor on the ballot in 2002.