On November 9, the New Mexico State House of Representatives passed HB 1155. Among other things, it moves the petition deadline for minor party nominees from mid-July to early June. This is the same type of petition which is being challenged in federal court in the case filed by the Libertarian Party last year. The party argues that since one petition is needed to qualify the party itself, once the party has nominated its candidates by convention, there is no logical reason to require each nominee to then submit a petition. It is typical of the New Mexico legislature that it would pass a bill, making its procedures even more difficult to defend, while a court case is pending on that same type of restriction.
New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson(Dem) is getting some positive press from libertarians for some of his stands. Too bad his status with third parties might be stained because of this ballot access fiasco.
Actually, the NM Democratic-dominated Legislature just made it even worse for us minor parties. Read below the astute and brilliant commentary by those opposed to minor parties and then ask yourself whether anyone is minding the Democracy Ship. Unfortunately those of us in those minor parties didn’t get the heads up about this bill until too late.
Legislators won’t ease minor-party ballot access
Posted 2/15/2007 10:54:00 AM
A bill whose aim was leveling the playing field for minor parties in the area of ballot access was tabled and effectively killed by Democratic members of a House committee this morning.
The discussion provided insight into the perspective of Democrats, who have controlled state government for more than seven decades.
House Bill 331, sponsored by Rep. Brian Moore, R-Clayton, would eliminate the state’s requirement of two petitions before minor parties can place candidates on the ballot.
The issue stems from an unsuccessful lawsuit filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union and Libertarian Party of New Mexico challenging the law on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Democrats and Republicans who want to run for office have to gather a number of signatures to run, but their parties don’t have to file separate petitions containing a certain number of signatures.
Minor-party candidates have to do both.
Moore’s bill sought to change the law to eliminate the requirement that individual minor-party candidates gather signatures. Moore’s bill proposed that minor-party candidates need only the nomination of their parties, which would submit nominating petitions to the secretary of state’s office.
At today’s hearing, a representative of the ACLU spoke in support of the bill, saying it would eliminate “the extra step that minor parties have to go through.â€
But Daniel Ivey-Soto, the state’s elections director, spoke on behalf of Secretary of State Mary Herrera in opposing the bill. Major-party candidates would still have to gather signatures if the legislation were enacted, but minor-party candidates would not have to do that, instead relying on their parties to nominate them.
“We feel that it actually creates a disparity against the major parties,†Ivey-Soto said.
The argument among minor parties is that Democrats and Republicans have to gather signatures to reduce the number of candidates who run in primaries, which are the nominating process of the major parties. Minor parties, with fewer members and candidates, can come up with their own, simplified systems for nominating candidates, they argue, because they don’t need primaries.
Bob Walsh, who spoke in support of the bill, pointed out another disparity against those who aren’t Democrats and Republicans – minor-party members and independents pay taxes to fund Democratic and Republican primaries, but can’t vote in them.
“So it is really important to minimize the barriers to get them on the ballot,†Walsh said.
Democrats didn’t like proposal
Rep. Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, agreed with Ivey-Soto.
“We’d be going backwards instead of forward here,†he said about the proposed legislation.
Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, defended the bill, and also turned the discussion toward those who register to vote without membership in any party – so-called “independents†– whose ballot access requirements weren’t addressed in Moore’s bill. Arnold-Jones pointed out that independents are the fastest-growing group of voters in New Mexico, and now make up more than 15 percent of the total.
“Somewhere along the line, we as major parties have disenfranchised these voters, and we need to be sure they have a voice,†Arnold-Jones said.
Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-Ohkay Owingeh, disagreed, saying she believes many people register independent of a party not because they don’t want to be party members but because, when they are filling out voter registration forms, they “overlook†the section on the form where they can specify party membership.
Arnold-Jones countered that she is “convinced that there are a growing group of people who are really angry with us.â€
“I do not think that prohibiting access is our intention,†she said. “That’s not our intention, but that’s exactly what’s happened.â€
Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Nambé and a member of the committee, said that, if people want an easier path toward getting their names on the ballot, they should register as Democrats or Republicans.
The committee’s six Democrats who were present then voted in favor of tabling the bill. The four Republicans who were present voted against the motion.
Moore was late in arriving to present his bill, as were several others who were scheduled. Though the committee’s chair, Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, could have begun a hearing on another bill whose sponsor was present, he instead had Arnold-Jones, who was not well educated on Moore’s bill, present it in his absence.
Moore arrived moments after his bill was tabled to find that he had not been given a chance to defend it.
Posted by Heath Haussamen. E-mail him at heath@haussamen.com.