On Friday, the Arkansas House approved HB2353, a bill to lower the requirements for third parties to 10,000 signatures. The bill passed 66-23.
State law currently requires signatures equal to three percent of the total number of voters in the last election, which was 24,171 last year.
However, the bill adds hurdles to the process, most notably, reducing the signature gathering time from 150 days to 60. It also removes a 15-day period new parties have to gather additional signatures if petitions are rejected by the secretary of state.
The bill was introduced in response to a successful lawsuit by the Green Party. U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. ordered the state to place the Green Party on the ballot, ruling that the signature requirements violated the party’s candidate for governor’s rights.
I thought that it was already ruled that 10,000 signatures is the requirement needed to get on the statewide ballot in Arkansas. Is this to just make the law in compliance with the court decision?
Reducing the time period for gathering signatures from 150 days to 60 days and eliminating the 15 days to gather extra signatures if the secretary of state says there aren’t enough that are valid would make things A LOT MORE DIFFICULT. If this shortening of the petition signature gathering time period bill passes it will only lead to less choice on the ballot, which of course is the real intention.