Last week, New Mexico voters elected State Senator Dianna Duran to be the Secretary of State.  She had said during the campaign that she favors easing New Mexico ballot access laws.  She is the first Republican elected to that office since 1930.  See this story about her.

New Mexico is the only state in last week’s election with a Republican-Democratic ballot access monopoly for all statewide offices as well as all U.S. House elections.  New Mexico is the only state that requires one petition to qualify a party, and then a separate petition for each person that the newly-qualifying party chooses to nominate (the petition for each nominee is circulated after the nominee has been chosen).  The only minor party or independent candidate on the ballot this year for any state office was one Libertarian, who polled over 7% in a state legislative race that had both a Democrat and a Republican running as well.

New Mexico requires all independent candidates to submit a petition of 3% of the last vote cast.  For statewide independents (for office other than president), this requirement is tied with Montana and Alabama for being the harshest in the nation.