On April 19, the Minnesota House passed HF 1830, which doubles the vote test for a party to remain on, from 5% to 10%. All Democrats voted “yes” and all Republicans voted “no.” The bill takes effect immediately. An earlier version of this post said the bill also doubles the petition for party status from 5% to 10%, but that was incorrect.
In 1980, the Eighth Circuit struck down North Dakota’s petition for party status, on the grounds that it must be too difficult because it had only been used once since it had been created in 1939. It consisted of a petition of 15,000 signatures, which worked out to 3.3% of the number of eligible signers at that time. The Minnesota party petition was created in 1913 and has never been used, at least for statewide status. It is possible it was used in the past for a party in just one county, although this is unlikely.
Minnesota is also in the Eighth Circuit. It seems likely that a lawsuit against the 5% petition for party status would succeed if it were filed.
On top of all that, court decisions and administrators have generally considered it to violate due process to increase the test for a party to remain ballot-qualified, unless the effective date is after the next election. The bill would instantly remove the Legal Marijuana Now Party from the ballot, violating the general understanding of due process protection for existing political parties.
I wouldn’t count on precedents from decades ago to hold up. It’s a new era judicially. Just look at what’s happening to precedents like Roe. Other sacred cows like Griswold and Brown are next on the chopping block. The reversal of the improvement trend in ballot access (which I was first to point out in these comments years ago before it became apparent to the good proprietor) is just starting, and will rapidly and exponentially accelerate. This will be no less true in the judiciary realm than in the legislative.
The downfall of ballot access will be much more rapid than its gradual improvement. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was sacked a lot faster than it was built. You don’t have to like what you see on the horizon to see it, and wishful thinking is not a good substitute for trend analysis.
The Eighth Circuit of today is not the same as 1980.
You misspelled marijuana in your post.
I hope this new and bad bill will be contested in the courts immediately.
Mr. PRESIDENT, you misspelled Marihuana in your comment.
The two ruling parties are clamping down against dissent. It seems quite likely that at some point, they won’t be satisfied with de facto bans via harsh ballot access laws, but will go all the way towards actual bans and mass arrests, likely using some threat/pretended relationship with a foreign adversary as an excuse to ban/lock up non D’s/R’s. They’re already building a modern precedent for such an action, in fact, as the attached article shows.
And I was one of the more optimistic folks about ballot access up until recently. Now I see the truth in comments like Trend Analysis’.
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-doj-indicts-four-americans?publication_id=82124&post_id=115804436&isFreemail=true
You’re still too optimistic, Josh. You are correct, they will go from de facto bans to mass arrests. Then they will go further than that towards mass executions and mass starvation under the pretense of fighting domestic terrorism, helping the poor, ending bigotry, and preserving the environment. And then they will go even further than that towards the evil global depopulation agenda which calls for killing off 90% or more of humanity and enslaving 99.9% or more of the remaining 10% in the service of globalist elitists.
Look, you don’t have to believe me. But I’m a trend analyst too, and the ballot access trend reversal was one I called years before my analysis became trendy. I have a pretty good prediction record when it comes to trends in general. The ugly truth is that there are not two ruling parties. There are two boots of the same tyranny stomping on our necks and faces forever. When Satan tempted Jesus with earthly power over all nations, it had to be a real offer. Jesus would be in a position to know if it wasn’t, and would not have been tempted.
Do you see where this is going? Voting and marching and lawyering and writing letters ain’t gonna solve diddly squat. If there is any hope left for us, and I’m not saying if there is or isn’t, we need to cling to our guns and our Bibles, prep for war and survival, pray, and learn to catch prey and not be prey.
In the book of Romans, Jesus says render into Caesar what is Caesar’s. It was a very clever answer, but He had to say it that way. If He said give Caesar nothing because he has legitimately earned nothing He would have been executed right then and there, and it wasn’t time for that yet. If He said give Caesar (anything) He would have been lying, and He could not lie. So that was the only possible answer, and only someone who understands that ALL government power regardless of what mask it wears comes from Satan would know what it meant.
The Chinese Communists, their DP fifth column, the neocons and rhinoes and Soylent Green people serve the same master regardless of who they think they serve. SO DO all the government loving fake Christians, constipated constitutionists, and oxymoronic political libertarians. They can all go to hell, and will, unless through a miracle of divine salvation, watering the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants, or maybe both, if this is indeed the final war – which all trends point to it being. Believe me now, or believe me later. I’ll be praying for you, and for all of us. We’ll need it.
Minnesota is overrun by communists
They gotta protect The Big Guy and his commie Xi loving buddies.
Hold on. Richard Winger is actually calling out his party for passing this? Normally he is 100% behind the Democrats.
Tom is right. China is already waging war against us. Covaids , fentanyl, stolen election, and much more. Russia is a deflection. Russia did not nothing wrong and is doing nothing wrong. Same with Trump. The Biden crime family are selling out our country, literally. They are traitors. Like the Clinton’s.
Hank, if you read the print newsletter Ballot Access News, for the entire 38-yeaer length of the publication history, you would know I have always publicized the fact that Democrats have a far worse record on ballot access than Republicans. I have repeatedly mentioned that Democrats challenged third party or independent presidential candidates’ ballot position in the presidential elections of 1936, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1976, 1980, 2004, and 2020. Republicans had never done that until 2008. Also I have had many front page stories about Democrats in state legislatures making ballot access worse. My last issue was about what the Democrats did in New Mexico recently. I have also had front page stories about what Democratic-majority legislatures did in New York in 2020, and Nevada in 2021. And it was Republican-majority legislatures who improved ballot access in the past six years in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
No circuit is the same as it was decades ago, but the Eighth Circuit is still good for ballot access. A few years ago it approved the decision of a U.S. District Court in Arkansas that enjoined the 3% (of the last gubernatorial vote) petition for party status. And this year it struck down South Dakota’s one-year before the election deadline for initiative petitions.
There’s always the Supreme Court.