Arkansas is the only state in which no Libertarian Party nominee has ever been on the ballot for any partisan office (except President). The state requires 10,000 signatures to place a new, or previously unqualified party, on the ballot. The Arkansas Libertarian Party is raising money to pay for a petition drive for 2012 and says it now is one-fourth of the way toward its goal. See the party web page here.
Parties in Arkansas must complete the petition in 90 days, but they choose their own 90-day period. The only parties that have qualified in Arkansas (for office other than President) in the last 40 years have been the Reform Party and the Green Party. Arkansas lets parties on the ballot for President only with a petition of 1,000 names, and many parties have qualified for presidential-only status.
Before 1971, Arkansas let any party on the ballot for all office, just by request. No petition was needed.
When did Elephants start having some major power in the regime ??? 1971 ???
Separate is NOT equal.
Brown v Bd of Ed 1954 — from nearby KS.
Arkansas has a defacto 4 year election cycle and a 3% gubernatorial/presidential vote retention requirement. This coming election year (2012) there are no state wide races outside of the federal arena and the 1000 signature requirement for President will attract several fringe candidates. So there is virtually no chance that any minor party will get enough votes to stay on the ballot.
The Green Party has been on the ballot three times now and never met that bar. In 2010, Jim Lendall (Green) was the only alternative in a poorly contested three way race for Governor where the Republican candidate (Jim Keet) had absolutely no chance against Mike Beebe (Democrat). Even though Lendall has been a state legislator and ran for Governor under the Green party banner in 2006 he still only managed to get 1.86% (14,513 votes). That is less then the number of signatures his party turned in to get on the ballot. It almost exactly matches the 14,430 votes John Gray (Green Party) received in a 4 way race for US Senate. As the independent candidate in that race (Trevor Drown who received 3.24% or 25,234 votes) noted in many of his campaign speeches, a vast majority of the electorate in Arkansas considers itself “non-partisan.” Though it is obvious from the results, they are still strongly influenced by the lesser of two evils mantra of the major parties belonging to a party, any party in Arkansas is a negative attribute that is only offset by the patronage jobs a candidate can promise.
While the history behind the Libertarian Party’s failure to become qualified in Arkansas is complex much of it is due to the extremely easy Presidential requirement. No signatures – just fill out the forms before 2000 and then only 1000 signatures since. Thus the national party with its 50 state presidential ticket goal has never had to do much if anything to qualify that ticket. To the best of the author’s knowledge since at least 1988, state Libertarians have always carried that burden themselves. There is no doubt that pride and a “true 50 state ballot status” for the LP may justify the cost and effort to chin the bar in 2012 but lets not kid ourselves we Libertarians and every other minor party will be doing it again in 2014.
The 10,000 alternate signature requirement (versus 3% or about 25,000) came about only with the combined efforts of the Green, Libertarian and other minor or independent candidates through the years and was finally placed in the law in 2007 by Act 821. The sixty day requirement was changed to ninety by Act 188 in 2009. Maybe its time to think outside of the ballot box.
I and several other Arkansas election experts have suggestion forming an Arkansas “Ballot Access Coalition” with the single purpose of placing one and only one candidate for Governor on the ballot every 4 years. The scheme would work like a cooperative. Every minor party or independent candidate desiring to participate would “contribute” petition money and/or equivalent volunteer signatures towards qualifying the ticket. An internal convention would then be apportioned according to the percentage each group contributes. Which ever “group” gets the nod for Governor would be eliminated for the Lieutenant Governors “race.” This elimination process would continue until all groups either nominate a statewide candidate or there are no nominees from a unrepresented group.
This scheme is far from perfect but it would allow most minor/independent groups to at least participate in the process. Having a Green candidate for lets say Governor, a Libertarian running for Lieutenant and maybe a Constitutionalist for Attorney General gives each group a candidate at the state wide level that can champion the party’s causes and positions while hopefully maintaining ballot access for the next cycle. Considering the fact that at the district and below levels a majority of races are unopposed with the Republican only now, after 35 years, gaining respectability in much of this Blue Dog state, some form of compromise among the minor players seems the only chance we have. Either that or a Constitutional Amendment taking ballot access control out of the hands of self serving Democrats and Republicans.
That’s creative, Gerhard, but I’d rather that energy go into persuading the legislature to modify the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot, so that it is 3% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections.
The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%. And a slight majority of states let the vote for any statewide race count.
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