On August 14, the New Mexico Libertarian Party won injunctive relief in its lawsuit to obtain a fair count of the number of write-ins in the Libertarian primary for State Appeals Court, position two. The Libertarian candidate, Stephen Curtis, was the only candidate for that office in the party’s primary, but he was a write-in candidate, so he needed 270 write-in votes. The state canvass said he only polled 246 write-ins.

However, from the election returns, it was obvious that the vote count wasn’t accurate. In the state’s most populous county, Bernalillo, the canvass showed that 270 write-ins were cast, but only 41 were cast for Curtis.

The injunction requires the Secretary of State to direct the Bernalillo County elections office to do a more complete job of checking for write-ins. Curtis v Oliver, 1:20cv-748. The opinion is 173 pages long and is very scholarly. It is by U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning, a Bush Jr. appointee.

This lawsuit is very important to the Libertarian Party, because it needs to poll 5% (of the presidential vote) for one of its nominees, in order to retain its status as a qualified major party. Voters are much more likely to vote for a minor party candidate in a race in which the voter doesn’t care passionately who wins, and State Court of Appeals is that type of race. There are both a Republican and a Democratic nominee in that race as well. In 2018 the New Mexico Libertarian Party polled 5.77% for Land Commissioner, a race with both a Republican and a Democrat, so it is somewhat plausible that in 2020 Curtis can receive 5%.