On January 3, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said he will resign soon. New Hampshire Secretaries of State are appointed by the legislature; they are not elected by the voters.

Gardner has been very influential in keeping New Hampshire ballot access for minor parties and independents restrictive. Almost all changes in New Hampshire ballot access laws since Gardner became Secretary of State in 1976 have been in the restrictive direction. In 1981 the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, increased from 1,000 signatures to 3,000 signatures. Also starting in 1981, petitioning candidates were required to file a declaration of candidacy in June, although that law did not immediately pertain to presidential candidates. But in 1985 the petition deadlines were moved from September to August, and the declaration of candidacy requirement was made applicable to presidential candidates.

In 1997 the vote test was raised from 3% for Governor, to 4% for either Governor or U.S. Senator. New Hampshire, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and New York are the only four states that have raised the vote test percentage in the last 40 years.

Gardner did help ballot access somewhat in 1996. He recommended to the legislature that it pass a bill setting up a party petition, a petition that put a new party on the ballot. That petition didn’t need to list any candidates. But the petition was so difficult, 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, that it has only been used twice, both times by the Libertarian Party, in 2000 and 2012. In 2014 Gardner was instrumental in persuading the legislature to pass a law saying no one could circulate a party petition until January 1 of the election year, and ever since, no one has been able to do the party petition.

Under Gardner’s administration, parties that lose their qualified status also lose their registered members, a policy that was recently held unconstitutional in Maine. Also under Gardner’s administration, New Hampshire continues to use party-column ballots. The only other states that still use party-column ballots are Connecticut, New York, New Jersey (in most counties), and Delaware. Furthermore, when a minor party does happen to become ballot-qualified in New Hampshire and thus obtain a party column (only the Libertarian Party has had that status in the last 90 years), Gardner always put independent candidates into the Libertarian Party’s column, which was always headed, “Libertarian and Other.”

Gardner was instrumental in helping ballot access in 2021. He influenced Governor Chris Sununu to veto the bill that moved the independent petition deadlines, and the independent declaration of candidacy deadlines, even earlier than they already are. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the news about Garnder’s resignation.