Several prestigious good-government organizations have tentatively decided to file an amicus curiae brief with the North Carolina Supreme Court, in the pending ballot access case filed in 2005 by the Libertarian Party. The Green Party had joined somewhat later as a co-plaintiff. The North Carolina State Court of Appeals had recently upheld all of North Carolina’s laws on how minor parties get on the ballot, but the vote had been 2-1, so the case is automatically being heard by the State Supreme Court.

The organizations interested in supporting the minor parties in court include North Carolina Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina.

North Carolina requires more signatures to get a new party on the ballot than any other state, except for California. North Carolina is also one of the few states that won’t let voters register into unqualified parties. And North Carolina is the only state that lists some of the qualified parties on the state income tax form (to facilitate a donation from the taxpayer to the political party) but won’t list all of the qualified parties. North Carolina says the tax form should only list the parties with registration of at least 1% of the state total, so that even though the Libertarian Party is on the ballot through 2012, it can’t be listed on the tax form.