New Mexico state courts are about to determine the fate of twelve Democratic and Republican Party candidates, whose ballot positions in the June primary are in jeopardy. See this story, which concerns mostly minor defects in petitions. Some of the candidates are incumbent legislators. UPDATE: see this story, which says a lower court on April 6 ruled against one Democrat, but the decision will be reviewed by the State Supreme Court on April 10.
Some years ago, a bill was introduced in the New Mexico legislature to let candidates onto primary ballots by fee instead of petition, but it did not pass.
New Mexico is no friend of voters – there’s an extraordinary threshold of signatures needed for ballot access for alternative parties, and to have their candidates listed it takes even more thousands of signatures.
Richard has the grim details re: NM I’m sure, but are there states that have higher hurdles for independents and third party candidates?
Hon Gary Johnson [Libertarian] for president certainly has some time to make up …. and Hon MP Richard Winger [Libertarian] was one of several Ls who promoted Jognson’s candidacy before I was even allowed to speak as a presidential candidate for five minutes at the state Libertarian Party convention.
I don’t hear MP Winger or Johnson calling for fair elections in the LP, in fact I haven’t heard much talk about that at all by any of the L status quo.
The LP status quo has been more concerned about suppressing free speech on their main web site lp.org. Johnson is from New Mexico, and that’s why I point out his record there. How do you know we won’t get more D vs R., veto vs pass, yes vs no, one person vs team, etc., from Johnson?
If you want to learn about team psychology, check out the 8th USA Parliament Election of 2012:
http://usparliament.org/votehere.php
As a candidate for president in the LP, “over-throwing” the LP status quo is part of my hopes and goal.
Eh, I just over-stepped my own goals of not “calling out” individuals on the team, as a team spirit sort of plan. I apologize to both Richard and Gary, I guess I was trying to make it a “teaching moment”?
These sorts of comments shouldn’t be public, but at the same time, it’s important that we look to make elections fair across the board.
#1, New Mexico is the only state that says the nominees of ballot-qualified parties cannot be on the November ballot unless they each submit a petition. Note that the sentence above says, “nominees”, not people who just want the party’s nomination. Minor parties nominate by convention in New Mexico, and every other state in which qualified parties nominate by convention, once the party nominates, the candidate is on the ballot (assuming the party files the paperwork properly). Only in New Mexico does the state say, “OK, even though you’re a qualified party, we’re not going to put your convention-nominated candidates on the November ballot without more petitions.” Those petitions are in addition to the petition to qualify the party in the first place.
Is the LPNM qualified? Judging from their website, they aren’t too active.
With Johnson as the probable nominee, it seems any LP Congressional candidates could do rather well.
PEACE