No petition to place a new party on the ballot has succeeded in Tennessee since 1968. The law requires a petition of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote, which is currently 33,844 signatures, and in the recent past has been over 40,000 signatures. Parties that have tried and failed to petition include the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Americans Elect, and Reform Parties.
Tennessee is in the Sixth Circuit. As previously reported, on September 6, the Sixth Circuit ruled that Chris Graveline should be on the ballot as an independent for Michigan Attorney General, even though he failed to collect the required 30,000 signatures. The basis was that the Michigan requirement had been in effect for thirty years and had only been used successfully twice. It stands to reason that if requiring 30,000 signatures in Michigan (which is less than 1% of the last gubernatorial vote) is unconstitutional because the petition is used so seldom, it should be unconstitutional for Tennessee to require 2.5% of the last gubernational vote for new parties, given that the Tennessee hurdle has not been used once in the last 48 years.
The third parties in Tennessee should unite in this case and sue the state.
The 6th Circuit should require Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee to solely rely on candidate qualification. Party bosses would still be able to recruit candidate and provide financial and other support for candidates.
There is no way to balance multiple paths to the ballot.
SEPARATE-IS-NOT-EQUAL in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954).
Each general election for each office is NEW.
The Equal Protection Clause in 14th Amendment, Sec. 1 requires that all candidates for the SAME office in the SAME election area pass the SAME (i.e. *EQUAL*) test(s) for ballot access to get on state or local general election ballots.
EQUAL nominating petitions or filing fees.
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DO ANY ballot access lawyers have ANY brain cells ???
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PR and AppV
The Libertarian Party of Tennessee would be the best plaintiff. The Green Party and the Constitution Party already lost in Tennessee a few years ago.
How many black folks lost civil rights cases in 1868-1954 (a mere 86 years) before Brown v Bd of Ed ???
2018-1954 (Brown) = a mere 64 years
2018-1968 (Williams v Rhodes) = a mere 50 years of MORON ballot access cases.