NEVADA LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL MAKING BALLOT ACCESS FOR NEW PARTIES TOUGHER

On May 31, the Nevada legislature passed SB 292, which makes ballot access for new or previously unqualified parties more difficult. The bill passed on a party-line vote in both houses, with all Democrats voting "yes" and all Republicans voting "no."

The bill does not change the number of signatures, which is 1% of the last vote cast statewide for U.S. House. But it moves the deadline from the middle of May to the end of April. Also, it requires that the petition include a large number of signatures from each of the U.S. House districts.

For 2022, the statewide petition is 13,557 signatures, so it must include at least 3,390 signatures from each of the four districts.

Someone reading the bill might think it moves the deadline from mid-June to June 1, but that is a reference to the date for the petition to be submitted to the Secretary of State. Another law, not being amended, says such petitions are due in the offices of county election officials five weeks before the date the Secretary of State receives the petitions.

Twice before, such deadlines for new parties have been declared unconstitutional, or enjoined. In 1986 a U.S. District Court struck down the Nevada deadline of April 1 in Libertarian Party of Nevada v Swackhamer, 638 F Supp 565. In 1992 another U.S. District Court enjoined the Nevada deadline for new parties in Fulani v Lau, cv-N-92-535, which was June 10.

The sponsor of the bill, Senator Roberta Lange, told the Assembly committee that she wanted the deadline earlier so that there would be more time for election officials to check the petitions.

This is utterly unconvincing, because the Nevada petition for an independent presidential candidate is not due until July, and requires the same number of signatures as a new party petition, and yet SB 292 does not move the independent presidential petition deadline.

The true motive for the bill is to block the Green Party from getting back on the ballot. The party last appeared in Nevada in 2010. Nevada is one of only five states in which the Green Party presidential nominee was not on the ballot in either of the last two elections. Senator Lange is a former state chair of the Nevada Democratic Party.

The severity of the law is shown most dramatically by the fact that no Nevada new party petition has succeeded since Americans Elect did its petition in 2011. Nevada is one of five states that bans all write-in voting in all elections, so a restrictive ballot access law in Nevada is even more harmful than it is in a normal state.

The bill originally imposed a straight-ticket device. However, the Assembly didn’t like that idea, and deleted it from the bill on May 31. A few hours later, the Senate agreed with the Assembly’s amendment, and therefore the final bill does not impose the device.

The bill also repeals sections of the election code that tell major parties how to elect county party officers.

On April 29, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed SB 350, which eases some rules for new party petitions.

On May 26, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 2093, a new attempt to force candidates of minor parties to pay filing fees. In Texas, for over one hundred years, only candidates running in a primary ever paid filing fees. Their original purpose was to help their party pay to administer its own primary. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Texas fees and said there must be some other way to get on a primary ballot, such as a petition. The decision, Bullock v Carter, compared filing fees to poll taxes, and the Court had already struck down poll taxes in Harper v Board of Elections in 1966.

In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California’s smaller candidate filing fees in Lubin v Panish, and said such fees are unconstitutional except when needed for the important state interest in keeping ballots uncrowded.

The new Texas bill applies to parties that nominate by convention (which means all parties except the Democratic and Republican Parties). It applies to anyone who seeks a convention nomination. The fee must be paid before the convention decides whom to nominate. Although there have been some other states that required convention nominees to pay a filing fee, no state ever imposed a filing fee on someone merely seeking to be nominated at a convention.

The Texas legislature had passed a somewhat similar bill in 2019, but because it was worded so poorly, the Texas state courts did not permit it to go into effect in 2020.

On May 18, the Delaware House passed HB 30. It moves the deadline for a new party to qualify from August to early April, and it moves the non-presidential primary from September to late April. The vote was 37-4. The "no" votes included three Democrats and one Republican.

New and small parties in Delaware nominate by convention, so there is no logical reason to move the deadline for new parties to qualify, just because the major parties want earlier primaries for themselves.

Delaware is in the Third Circuit, and in 1997 the Third Circuit enjoined a New Jersey law that required minor party nominees (for office other than president) to submit petitions in April, when the major parties didn’t nominate until June. The new Delaware bill, by requiring minor parties to have qualified and to have chosen their nominees by April 1, whereas the major parties wouldn’t nominate until late April, seems to violate the 1997 decision, which is called Council of Alternative Parties v Hooks, 121 F 3d 876.

On May 20, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed AB 446. It had already passed the Elections Committee. It lowers the number of signatures for a new party from 10% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 3%, which would be 373,928 signatures for 2022.

Generally new parties in California don’t use the petition method; instead they qualify by persuading .33% of the registered voters to join the party. The 10% petition has only been used in 1948 (by the Independent Progressive Party) and 2011 (by Americans Elect).

A bill is active in New Hampshire to move the non-presidential primary from September to an earlier month. The House passed HB 98 on April 8, and that version of the bill moved the primary from September to June.

On May 27, the Senate amended the bill and passed it, so that the primary would be in August. The Senate also changed the effective date to 2023.

The New Hampshire law requires candidates who intend to petition for the November ballot to submit a declaration of candidacy three months before the primary. This includes presidential candidates. So if the Senate version of the bill passes, independent presidential candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, would need to file a declaration of candidacy in May. This would violate the U.S. Supreme Court precedent Anderson v Celebrezze, which said that states must let non-major party presidential candidates enter the election in the summer of presidential election years.

The Senate version of the bill would also move the petition deadlines for candidates running outside the major parties from August to July.

Arkansas: on April 27, the Senate defeated SB 684. It would have raised filing fees. The fee for U.S. Senator and Governor would have risen to $12,000. Current law lets each party set its own filing fees. The bill received 15 "yes" votes and only 14 "no" votes, but it needed 18 votes to pass.

South Carolina: the legislature adjourned on May 13 without passing HB 3262, a bill to require filing fees for candidates nominated by convention parties.

On May 13, U.S. District Court Judge John Koetl, a Clinton appointee, refused to enjoin the ballot access changes New York made last year: the stricter definition of a qualified party, and the tripling of the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates from 15,000 signatures to 45,000. Libertarian Party of New York v New York State Board of Elections, s.d., 1:20cv-5820.

Earlier, Judge Koetl had also refused to enjoin the new definition of party in the lawsuit filed by the SAM Party.

A great deal of information about the New York petition did not seem to come to the attention of Judge Koetl. New York now has the third highest number of signatures for a presidential candidate running outside the two major parties, when the easier method in each state is compared. New York has the only prohibition on out-of-state circulators in the nation, for minor party petitioning. New York has the shortest petitioning period for general election presidential procedures. New York has the third earliest deadline for presidential procedures.

The state presented misleading evidence. It presented a declaration purportedly comparing the requirements of all the states, but the author ignored all the procedures for newly-qualifying parties. Instead he just listed the independent candidate procedures. He, and the judge, appear uninformed that 39 states have separate procedures for new parties, and in nine states, the minor party procedures are significantly easier than the independent procedures.

The chart on page four shows that New York has the third earliest deadline, for president. The plaintiffs will be able to introduce more evidence when the case moves into the declaratory relief phase.

On May 14, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued an opinion eliminating the state’s initiative process. Butler v Watson, 2020-IA-01199. This is the first time a state that had the initiative, lost it.

The vote was 6-3. The majority said there is a flaw in the procedure. The state constitution says no more than 20% of the signatures may come from any one U.S. House district. But in 2001, the state lost one of its districts, so that it only has four. One would have thought that if this meant the initiative could not be used, that would have been apparent in 2001. Instead, the state continued using its initiative process for twenty years. Now, suddenly, the court has invalidated an initiative for the first time, one that passed in 2020 with 74% and legalized medical marijuana.

The state election code still has the boundaries for the five U.S. House districts that the state had before the 2000 census, and for twenty years initiative petitions used those obsolete district lines. The three justices in the minority said because the boundaries for the five districts are still in the law, there is no necessity not to continue using the old districts.

This year, it became easy for any city in Utah to use ranked choice voting for its own elections, thanks to a state law requiring county election officials to administer ranked choice voting for cities that want to use it. Salt Lake City and 22 other cities and towns will be using ranked choice voting for elections this year for city council and mayor. Using RCV enables these cities to save money. Instead of having two-round elections in August and November, they only need a November election.

Calendar year 2021 has probably been the worst year in U.S. history for direct democracy. Besides the end of the initiative in Mississippi, described above, state legislatures in many other states have also passed bills to limit the ability of voters to vote on proposed laws.

Arkansas: on April 29, SB 614 was signed into law. It bans out-of-state circulators, and bans paying per-signature. On May 28, a federal lawsuit was filed against the new law, Liberty Initiative Fund v Thurston.

California: on May 26, the State Senate passed SB 660, which outlaws paying circulators on a per-signature basis.

Florida: on April 27, the legislature passed SJR 204, which asks voters if they wish to abolish the Constitution Revision Commission. The Commission has existed since 1977, and allows ideas for changing the state constitution to be placed on the ballot by an independent commission. Florida ballot access was hugely improved in 1998 by action of the commission, and subsequent support from voters.

Florida(2): on May 7, SB 1890 was signed. It prohibits donations greater than $3,000 to a committee working to get an initiative on the ballot. On May 8 a federal lawsuit was filed against the new law, American Civil Liberties Union v Lee, n.d., 4:21cv-190.

Idaho: on April 17, SB 1110 was signed. It requires 6% of the voters in every legislative district to sign an initiative petition.

South Dakota: on March 28, SB 77 was signed into law. It requires every word on an initiative petition to be in 14 point font size. Because the petition must carry every word of the proposed initiative, this means many initiative petitions will need to be as big as beach blankets.

Utah: on March 23, HB 136 was signed into law. It prohibits paying circulators on a per-signature basis, and forces paid circulators to wear a badge.

This is not a complete list of all the 2021 restrictive changes.

Many voices have been preaching for some time that if only partisan primaries were abolished, politicians would be more centrist and would get along better. But the evidence consistently rebuts them.

A new piece of evidence appeared on May 19, when the U.S. House voted on a resolution to study the January 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Although Republican leaders urged a "no" vote, 35 Republicans voted in favor. These Republicans are from 24 states, with a wide variety of primary systems.

Republicans from states with closed Republican primaries who voted "yes" are two from Florida, one from Idaho, four from New York, one from Oklahoma, one from Oregon, one from Pennsylvania, one from South Dakota, and one from Utah (12 members).

Republicans who voted "yes" who are from states with semi-closed Republican primaries are one from Iowa, two from Nebraska, one from New Jersey, one from West Virginia, and one from Wyoming (6 members).

Republicans who voted "yes" who are from states with open primaries are one from Alabama, two from Arkansas, two from Illinois, one from Indiana, two from Michigan, one from Mississippi, two from Ohio, one from South Carolina, and two from Texas (14 members).

Republicans who voted "yes" from states with top-two primaries are one from California and two from Washington (3 members).

State	Deadline	Code Reference	Formula for Date
Az.	September 6	16-341.G	60 days before general election
Ky.	September 6	118.365	Friday after 1st Tuesday in Sept.
Miss.	September 6	23-15-785(2)	60 days before general election
R.I.	September 6	17-14-11	60 days before general election
N.D.	September 2	16.1-12-04	64 days before general election
Id.	August 31	34-501(c)(D)	date named in law
Del.	August 20	Title 15, sec. 3001	21 days before primary election
Ore	August 27	249.722(1)	70 days before general election
Wy.	August 27	22-5-307	70 days before general election
La.	August 23	Title 18, sec. 1255	Friday after 3rd Tuesday in August
Va.	August 23	24.2-543	74 days before general election
Minn.	August 20	204B.09	77 days before general election
Tn.	August 20	2-5-101	3rd Tuesday in 3rd month before gen. election
Iowa	August 16	44.4	81 days before general election
Utah	August 15	20A-9-503(3)(b)(i)	date named in law
Ala.	August 15	17-14-31	82 days before general election
Mt.	August 14	13-10-504	83 days before general election
Cal.	August 9	Elec. code 8403(a)(1)	88 days before general election
Alas.	August 7	15.30.026	90 days before general election
Colo.	August 7	1-4-303(1)	90 days before general election
Ct.	August 7	Ch. 153, sec. 9-453i	90 days before general election
D.C.	August 7	1-1312(j)	90 days before general election
Hi.	August 7	Tit. 2, sec. 11-113(c)(2)	90 days before general election
N.H.	August 7	655:43, 655:41	34 days before primary election
Ohio	August 7	3513.257	90 days before general election
S.D.	August 6	12-7-7	first Tuesday in August
Wis.	August 6	8.20(8)	first Tuesday in August
Md.	August 5	Art. 33, sec. 5-703(f)	first Monday in August
Ks.	August 5	25-305	day before primary election
Ark.	August 1	7-8-302	date named in law
Me.	August 1	Tit. 21A, sec. 354.8	date named in law
Neb.	August 1	32-620	date named in law
Pa.	August 1	settlement, Libt Pty v Davis, 1984	date named in settlement
Vt.	August 1	Title 17, sec. 2402	date named in law
W.V.	August 1	3-5-24	date named in law
Mass.	July 30	Ch. 53: sections 7 and 10	14 weeks before general election
Mo.	July 29	115.329	15th Monday before general election
N.J.	July 29	19:13-9	99 days before general election
Wa.	July 27	29A.20.121(2)	fourth Saturday in July
Mich.	July 18	168.685	110 days before general election
Fla.	July 15	103.021(3)	date named in law
Ok.	July 15	10-101.1	date named in law
S.C.	July 15	7-13-351	date named in law
Ga.	July 9	21-2-132	second Tuesday in July
Nev.	July 5	298.109	25 work days bef. 2nd Fri. in August
Ind.	July 1	3-8-6-10(b)	date named in law
N.M.	June 27	1-8-52.B	23 days after primary election
Ill.	June 24	10 ILCS 5/10-6	134 days before general election
N.Y.	May 28	Elec. code 6-158.9	23 weeks before general election
Tex.	May 20	181.005(e), 181.061(c)	75 days plus one day after primary
N.C.	May 18	163A-950	15 days before June 1

This chart shows that New York now has the third earliest petition deadline for presidential candidates running outside the major parties.

STATE	REQUIREMENTS		SIGNATURES OR REGIS. OBTAINED				DEADLINES
	Full Party	Candidate	Libertarian	Green	Consti.	Wk. Fam.	Party Due	Indp. Due
Ala.	51,588	51,588	*20,000	0	0	0	May 24	May 24
Alaska	(reg) 10,821	pay fee	*(rg) 6,764	*(rg) 1,464	*(rg) 652	0	May 3	June 1
Ariz.	31,686	(est) #40,670	already on	1,000	0	0	Nov 25 ‘21	May 4
Ark.	10,000	10,000	*7,000	0	0	0	Dec 24 ‘21	May 2
Calif.	(es) (reg) 72,395	65 + fee	already on	already on	(rg) 211	0	Jan. 4	March 11
Colo.	(reg) 1,000	#8,000	already on	already on	already on	0	Jan. 14	July 14
Conn.	no procedure	#7,500	already on	already on	0	already on	– – –	Aug. 10
Del.	(est.) (reg) 750	(est.) 7,500	already on	already on	*(rg) 278	*357	Aug. 23	July 15
D.C.	no procedure	#3,000	already on	already on	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 10
Florida	0	pay fee	already on	already on	already on	0	April 29	May 6
Georgia	72,336	#64,354	already on	0	0	0	July 12	July 12
Hawaii	833	25	already on	already on	already on	0	Feb. 20	June 7
Idaho	17,348	1,000	already on	can’t start	already on	0	Aug. 30	March 11
Illinois	no procedure	#25,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	June 27
Indiana	no procedure	#44,935	already on	0	0	0	– – –	June 30
Iowa	no procedure	#1,500	0	0	0	0	– – –	*in court
Kansas	21,102	5,000	already on	*500	0	0	June 1	Aug. 1
Ky.	no procedure	#5,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 9
La.	(reg) 1,000	#pay fee	already on	already on	(rg) 267	0	Aug. 19	Aug. 19
Maine	in court	#4,000	in court	already on	0	0	*in court	June 1
Md.	10,000	10,000	already on	already on	0	0	Aug. 1	Aug. 1
Mass.	(est) (reg) 45,500	#10,000	(rg) 19,097	(rg) 5,709	(rg) 370	78	Feb. 1	Aug. 2
Mich.	42,506	30,000	already on	already on	already on	0	July 21	July 21
Minn.	(est) 165,000	#2,000	0	0	0	0	April 30	May 31
Miss.	be organized	1,000	already on	already on	already on	0	March 1	March 1
Mo.	10,000	10,000	already on	*500	already on	0	July 25	July 25
Mont.	5,000	#16,959	already on	0	0	0	March 7	May 31
Nebr.	6,980	4,000	already on	0	0	0	Aug. 1	Sep. 1
Nev.	13,557	250	already on	(reg) 2,274	already on	0	May 13	May 13
N. Hamp.	23,798	#3,000	0	0	0	0	Aug. 9	Aug. 9
N.J.	no procedure	#800	0	0	0	0	– – –	June 7
N. M.	3,483	10,260	already on	0	0	already on	June 30	June 28
N.Y.	no procedure	#45,000	in court	in court	can’t start	already on	– – –	May 31
No. Car.	13,757	(est) 110,000	already on	*1,000	*900	0	May 17	March 8
No. Dak.	7,000	1,000	0	0	0	0	April 11	Sep. 5
Ohio	57,630	5,000	0	0	0	0	July 6	May 2
Okla.	35,592	pay fee	already on	0	0	0	Feb. 28	April 15
Oregon	27,960	23,737	already on	already on	already on	already on	Aug. 30	Aug. 30
Penn.	no procedure	5,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 1
R.I.	18,758	#1,000	0	0	0	0	Aug. 1	July 15
So. Car.	10,000	10,000	already on	already on	already on	already on	May 8	July 15
So. Dak.	3,393	3,393	already on	0	0	0	July 1	April 26
Tenn.	56,083	25	0	0	0	0	Aug. 10	April 7
Texas	83,435	83,435	already on	already on	can’t start	can’t start	May 15	June 23
Utah	2,000	#1,000	already on	0	already on	0	Nov 30 ‘21	March 15
Vermont	be organized	#500	already on	0	0	already on	Dec 31 ‘21	Aug. 18
Virginia	no procedure	#10,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	June 21
Wash.	no procedure	#pay fee	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	May 20
West Va.	no procedure	#7,610	already on	already on	0	0	– – –	Aug. 1
Wisc.	10,000	#2,000	already on	0	already on	0	April 1	June 1
Wyo.	5,418	5,418	already on	*0	already on	*0	June 1	Aug. 28
TOTAL STATES ON			32	16	13	6	~

#partisan label permitted.
"WK FAM" = Working Familes Party.
"(rg.) = registered members.
*change since April 1 2021 BAN.

On May 8, the Virginia Republican Party held statewide a convention to choose its nominees for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. The election is November 2, 2021. The process seems to have worked smoothly, and Virginia Republican leaders seem pleased with the outcome. One of the candidates for the gubernatorial nomination, Amanda Chase, had earlier said that she would run as an independent if she did not get the nomination. However, she has since changed her mind and the party seems unified.

California: Assembly, district 54: five Democrats and a Socialist Workers Party candidate were on the ballot. The Socialist Workers candidate polled 3.94%. He was handicapped because California law forced him to have "party preference: none" on the ballot, while his opponents had "Democratic". When this seat had last been up, in November 2020, there had been two Democrats and no one else on the ballot.

Pennsylvania (4 races): State Senate district 22: Democratic 51.18%; Republican 38.45%; Green 9.22%; Libertarian 1.15%. When this seat had last been up, in 2018, the percentages had been: Democratic 61.33%; Republican 38.67%.

State Senate 48: Republican 62.33%; Democratic 29.91%; independent 4.72%; Libertarian 3.04%. When this seat was last up, in 2018, it was: Republican 62.94%; Democratic 37.06%.

State House 59: Republican 65.48%; Democratic 32.02%; Libertarian 2.50%. When this seat was last up, in 2020, only a Republican was on the ballot.

State House 60: Republican 76.39%; Democratic 19.38%; Libertarian 4.22%. When last up, in 2020, only a Republican was on the ballot.

In Texas, eleven Republicans, ten Democrats, one Libertarian, and one independent were on the ballot for U.S. House, Sixth District. The Republicans polled 61.95%; Democrats 37.26; the independent .45%; the Libertarian .34%. When this seat had last been up, in November 2020, the percentages had been: Republican 52.80%; Democratic 43.98%; Libertarian 3.22%.

Maryland: on May 1, Libertarian James Cook was elected to the council of Rock Hall. The election was non-partisan, and had six candidates seeking two seats.

Oklahoma: during May, Dillon Feazel, a member of the Altus city council, changed his registration to the Libertarian Party.

During May, the Unity Party becaome ballot-qualified in Florida. It is the first new party in Florida since 2017, when the Independent Party regained its status.

On May 26, the Rhode Island Election Board released the November 2020 presidential write-ins: Howie Hawkins 174; Kanye West 131; Brock Pierce 6.

On May 17, former Louisiana Governor and Congressman Buddy Roemer died at the age of 77. He had sought the presidential nomination of Americans Elect in 2012. Roemer polled more votes than any other candidate seeking the nomination, but he only got 6,293 votes and party rules said no one could be nominated with fewer than 10,000 votes. So the party had no nominee.