On June 20, an Arizona trial court heard the challenge to the petition of Kevin McCormick, Libertarian Party candidate for Governor. All parties in Arizona must nominate by primary. Candidates in all parties need signatures to get on their own party’s primary ballots. Kevin McCormick was found not to have enough valid signatures to be on the Libertarian primary ballot. He needed 3,153 signatures, and only registered Libertarians and registered independents could sign.

McCormick had enough signatures of registered voters, but over 1,000 of his signers were registered Republicans or registered Democrats. The petition drive had been conducted entirely by volunteers, who carefully asked each potential signer about how the individual was registered. Hundreds of people said they were registered independents, and signed, but in reality they weren’t independents; they were major party members. See McCormick’s facebook video for more about this.

Arizona allows candidates to collect signatures on-line, but McCormick and his campaign believe that the on-line system does not work properly, and that thousands of people who tried to sign on-line were wrongfully rejected. He plans to file a freedom of information request to learn more about this problem.

In 2005, the Arizona legislature passed a law that is still in effect, that says anyone who tries and fails to get on a ballot cannot then run for the same office as a write-in in the general election.

The Libertarian Party is currently suing to overturn the law on how candidates get on the primary ballot. The case is in the 9th circuit. All the briefs have been filed, but the date for the oral argument has not been set.

A Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate will be on the Arizona primary this year, because his petition was not challenged. Thanks to Andy Craig for the link to McCormick’s facebook video.