Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer who lives in Alabama, criticizes Alabama ballot access laws in this column in Alabama Political Reporter. He correctly notes that no statewide minor party or statewide independent petition (except for president, which is easier) has succeeded in Alabama in twenty years. He also points out that the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot is 20%, the highest percentage in the nation.

The Secretary of State of Alabama then wrote a so-called rebuttal, which Alabama Political Reporter published. The Secretary of State makes much of the fact that some independent and minor party petitions for district or county office have succeeded in recent years, but the Secretary of State has nothing to say about statewide petitions.

Kennedy could also have pointed out that Alabama is engaging in a fierce legal fight to retain its law that says only qualified parties can get a free list of the registered voters, whereas unqualified parties who are trying to petition must pay $34,000 for the list. The Alabama Libertarian Party is suing over this law, and the state is requiring that all the plaintiffs undergo time-consuming depositions for a case that should be decided simply on precedent. In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a 3-judge U.S. District Court decision from New York, that states that give a free list of registered voters to qualified parties must also give the list to parties that are petitioning. When other states have been sued on this issue, they have always given in, or put up feeble defense, but not Alabama.