The Libertarian Party’s ballot access lawsuit in Oklahoma was to have had a pretrial conference on November 30, 2005, but at the request of the state, it has been delayed again, until March 22, 2006. It is conceivable that the State Board of Elections will be asking the legislature to ease the law early next year, thus making the lawsuit moot. However, this is just speculation.
Oklahoma was the only state in the union in 2004 in which it was impossible for voters to vote for anyone for president except Bush and Kerry. One must go all the way back to 1972 to find a similar instance when it was impossible for anyone to vote for president, except to vote for the Democratic or Republican nominee.
You have to go back to 1964 and LBJ and Goldwater. In 1972, there was Nixon, McGovern, and American Party candidate Congressman John Schmitz. In 1968, there was Nixon, Humphrey, and Governor George Wallace, the AIP candidate.
In 1972, Schmitz did not make the ballot in every state. There must have been at least one state that year with no third-party or independent presidential candidate on the ballot.
I know that in 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 there was at least one third-party/independent presidential candidate in every state, but I’m not sure about how that worked out in 1984 or 1976.
I was a Libertarian candidate for Congress in 1980 in Oklahoma, since then the ballot access restrictions have only gotten worse in my opinion.
The further delay in litigation before the Oklahoma Supreme Court has caused me to suspend my candidacy for the 5th Congressional district in 2006. It is clear that no effective campaign could be planned and funded. The current date for a hearing is less than three months before the filing deadline for candidates. That deadline was moved up to June from July, as it had been in previous years. Since I had maintained a campaign website and P.O. Box since April of 2004, I have invited any other libertarians to announce for this office.
A two-part article of mine on ballot access appears in the Fall and Winter editions of Diogenes, a quarterly journal for legal reform.