The Utah Green Party is mostly finished with its party petition, and expects to submit the petition during July. This will be the first time the Green Party has been a qualified party in Utah since 2012.
Only one statewide race is on the ballot in Utah in 2018, U.S. Senate. This means the party must poll 2% for that office in 2018, or it won’t remain on the ballot for 2020. Utah elects all its statewide state offices in presidential years. If a party gets 2% for a statewide office, it remains on the ballot for the next two elections, so generally it is better strategy for a newly-qualifying party to qualify during a presidential year, when it is far easier to poll 2% for one of the five or six races up. However, the Green Party didn’t petition in Utah in 2016; instead it put Jill Stein on the ballot as an independent candidate.
All this petitioning to appear on the ballot is political harassment if not oppression that violates the First Amendment and equal suffrage.
Isn’t Rep Jason Chaffetz’s seat (Utah-3rd)up for a special election this December? Based on the timing, I wonder if the Greens might field a congressional candidate.