The 8th Circuit will hold oral arguments in Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger on Wednesday, May 11, in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the case that challenges the North Dakota law that says no party can nominate any candidates in its primary, for state legislature, unless between 10% and 15% of all the voters who turn out to vote in the primaries choose that particular party’s primary ballot. The law specifically requires 1% of the population (including children and aliens), but turnout is so low in North Dakota primaries, especially in midterm years, that 1% of the population works out to between 10% and 15% of the voters who actually vote.
The law is so stringent, no minor party candidate for the legislature has appeared on the November ballot since 1976. Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court upheld the law last year, after refusing to hold oral arguments, and issuing a ruling the very day after the last brief had been filed.
North Dakota is the only state remaining that has a minimum vote requirement for candidates in partisan primaries, except that Hawaii imposes a primary vote test as well; but the Hawaii vote test only applies to independent candidates, not party candidates.
ND is one more State which should NOT exist.
i.e. should still be a U.S.A. territory.
ND like many western States was created by the Elephants during and after the Civil War to rig/control the U.S.A. Senate and Electoral College.
Any 0 to 100 scale as to which gerrymander States have the most EVIL / Stupid UN-equal ballot access laws — 100 = EVIL Worst.
The most objective way to compare state ballot access laws is to see how often those laws get used. Therefore it is easy to say: (1) for president, Oklahoma has the worst ballot access laws, because no one has used them since 2000; (2) for US House, Georgia has the worst ballot access laws, because no one has used them since they were re-written in 1964; (3) for minor party candidates for the legislature, North Dakota has the worst laws, because they haven’t been used since 1976; (4) for minor parties getting status as a qualified party, New Jersey is the worst because no minor party has been qualified since 1920; (5) for statewide office other than President, Alabama is the worst because no one has used either the minor party or independent petition since 2000.
Hmmm. Only a mere 5 of 50 States being totally evil rotten ???
How many States, if any, in which new / minor parties are somewhat relevant — i.e. are routinely the balance of power in legislative bodies ???
P.R. and App.V – with EQUAL ballot access.
Remember that before a new or minor party can even participate in the ND primaries they first have to register the party with the state, which works out to be something like seven thousand petition signatures. This notion that this primary rule is needed to avoid ballot clutter does not seem to make sense when you have the petitioning requirements to register.
North Dakota does not have voter registration, let alone party registration. What method other than participation in the primary is there to measure party support?
If turnout were higher, do you think any more persons would choose the Libertarian ballot? If there were a hotly contested primary for senator or governor or representative (at large), is a voter going to go to the polls and ask for a Libertarian ballot?