On January 15, briefs asking for summary judgment were filed by both sides in Libertarian Party of Tennessee v Thompson, in U.S. District Court in Nashville. The issue is the ballot access law for new and previously unqualified parties, which is so severe, it has not been used since 1968. Plaintiffs include the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Parties.
The state’s brief says that even though the law says petitions must be signed by members of the party, that that is a meaningless law and it can safely be ignored. Tennessee does not have registration by party. Also, Tennessee has no government petition form for new parties, and groups prepare their own petition. The law says a party includes a group that “has membership equal to at least 2.5% of the total number of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election of governor as shown by petitions to establish a political party filed with the coordinator of elections and signed by registered voters as members of the party.”
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Minnesota has an even tougher process to create a new political party. We also do not have formal party registration.
Most of the time minor party candidates simply file as an Independent and then the law is set up to have [on the paperwork] a space where the candidate can write in a brief minor party or philosophy principle label to be identified with on the ballot in lieu of Independent. Then if the minor party gets like 5% of the popular vote, they become a major party for a few years.
Does Tenn have this?
Because, as comment #3 says, Minnesota lets a candidate who uses the independent procedure choose a partisan label that gets printed on the ballot, Minnesota in reality is far kinder than Tennessee is. If the independent in Minnesota gets 5% for any statewide race, that group (identified by the label on the ballot) then becomes a qualified party. So Minnesota has recognized the American Party, and the Reform Party (which renamed itself the Independence Party), and the Constitution Party, and the Green Party, all as ballot-qualified parties in the last 40 years.
By contrast, Tennessee independents can’t choose a partisan label for the ballot. So even though Ross Perot got over 5% for president in Tennessee in 1996, that didn’t create a ballot-qualified party.
It seems like this case has been dragging on forever. How much longer before a decision is reached?