On February 3, the Arkansas House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee passed HB 1338. It increases the number of signatures for minor party presidential status, and for independent presidential candidates, from 1,000 signatures to 5,000 signatures. The vote was unanimous.
The Arkansas Green, Constitution, and American Solidarity Parties are thinking about rushing to complete the presidential minor party petition soon, before the bill takes effect.
This looks like something COFOE should oppose immediately and aggressively.
It’s not easy to fight this bill. 13 candidates on the November 2020 presidential ballot was quite a few. Arkansas had the third most candidates for president of any state. 5,000 signatures is still only four-tenths of 1% of the Arkansas vote last year, and the petition can take as long as the groups want, and has a reasonable deadline, August of the election year. It would be better if people in Arkansas would lobby the legislators to amend the bill so that 5,000 signatures also applies to the petition for full party status.
There is no way I see the legislators in Arkansas lowering the 10,000 signature requirement in Arkansas when they were just trying to increase it not that long ago.