On June 26, the deadline, the New Mexico Green Party submitted a petition to restore its party status. New Mexico now has six ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, Green, and Independent American.
However, there are only a handful of minor party nominees for any office in New Mexico this year, because of the law that says even a qualified party must submit a petition signed by 1% of the last gubernatorial vote for each of its nominees, unless it is entitled to nominate by primary.
New Mexico is one of only three states that will definitely have no statewide minor party or independent candidates on the November 2014 ballot. The others are California and Alabama, and possibly Kentucky and New Hampshire (depending on whether Libertarian petitions for U.S. Senate in those two states succeed). The only state that has no statewide office elections this year is Washington. Thanks to Rick Lass for the information about the Green Party petition.
Richard,
Could you explain how the ballot access retention works in New Mexico? It’s pretty confusing.