On September 15, Duke University’s Political Union heard from Political Science Professor Michael Munger, speakling about the Libertarian Party, minor parties in general, and the North Carolina ballot access laws. See this story. Munger actually understated his case. North Carolina’s petition for new parties, and for statewide independent candidate petitions, for 2010 and 2012 is 85,379 valid signatures, not 70,000. North Carolina is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader never has appeared on the ballot (the others are Oklahoma, Indiana and Georgia). A decision about the constitutionality of North Carolina’s law is expected from the State Court of Appeals, any day now.
You are correct. The 70k figure is what the LP needed to qualify for the 2008 ballot, the first year under the lowered retention threshold. Mr. Munger met that threshold, so we don’t have to face the higher petition number, which is the result of the surge of voters from last year’s presidential race. If the court doesn’t strike down the petition number, it will be extremely difficult for the Green Party and Constitution Party to complete their petition drives.
Chris is right, not surprisingly. The Libs had to get 72k VALID sigs (requiring more than 100k gross sigs, since NC is a fierce “hard count” state.) And we did that. So, I was speaking about we HAD to do.
On the other, and also not surprisingly, BA is correct. The current figure is more than 85k valid sigs, for any other “new” party. I did try to make this distinction in my talk, but it did not come across well in the newspaper article. So, thanks to BA for clarifying that.
Separate is NOT equal.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954
Every election is NEW and has ZERO to do with any prior event.
Too difficult for New Age ballot access so-called lawyers to understand ??? Duh.
Thank for all your doing for the Libertarian Party and minor parties alike in North Carolina Mr. Munger. Hopefully with the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections “Electoral Freedom Act of 2011” being introduced once again in 2011, we can obtain more free elections in NC. Hopefully, the Libertarians in NC will obtain a favorable ruling in their ballot access case appeal and it will expedite the passage of the “Electoral Freedom Act of 2011” as well.