WYOMING ALMOST CERTAIN TO SEVERELY INJURE BALLOT ACCESS

On February 19, the Wyoming Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee passed HB 173.  It had already passed the House, so is extremely likely to become law.  The vote in committee was 4-1.  The bill raises the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 2% of the last vote for U.S. House, to 3%.  For legislative candidates, the bill raises it from 2% to 5%.

Furthermore, it moves the petition deadline for independent petitions from August to June; and it requires independents to file a declaration of candidacy in May.

The irony is that the law was already very severe.  Wyoming was one of only four states that had fewer than four presidential candidates on the ballot last year.  The state had no independent candidates on the ballot for any statewide race, and only one independent candidate for the legislature on the ballot, out of 75 races.

The bill also says that no one may be an independent candidate, unless he or she is a registered independent.  No exception is made for presidential candidates.  No state now has any law requiring an independent presidential candidate to be a registered independent.  When states have had such laws, they have been defeated in court.

There are only three precedents.  In 2004 Ralph Nader was challenged in Pennsylvania on the grounds that his running mate, Peter Camejo, was a registered Green in California.  But the State Supreme Court ruled that states canot bar presidential or vice-presidential candidates from the ballot on the basis of how they are registered.  In re Nader, 956 A.2d 908.

Also, in 2020, Kanye West was challenged in Idaho and Arizona on the basis that he couldn’t be an independent presidential candidate because he was a registered Republican.  But state courts in both states interpreted the law do not apply to presidential candidates.  The Idaho case was Idaho Democratic Party v Denney, Ada Co. Judicial District cv01-20-14470.  The Arizona Supreme Court case was Clayton v West, 489 P.3d 394 (that court kept West off the ballot on an unrelated ground, that his candidates for presidential elector hade failed to file a form).

The bill’s June petition deadline could be held unconstitutional as well.  Federal courts in four states have struck down or enjoined June petition deadlines.  The four states are Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, and South Dakota.

The sponsor of the bill said the bill is necessary to stop sore losers, even though sore losers are already banned in Wyoming.

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RESTRICTIVE BILL STOPPED IN MONTANA

On February 6, a Montana bill that would have increased the petition requirements for independent candidates was amended, so as to not increase the requirements.

Representative Jodee Etchart (R-Billings) had introduced HB 207 on November 12, 2024.  Originally it increased the number of signatures for a non-presidential independent candidate to 15% of the winner’s vote for that same office in the last election.  Existing law reqauires 5% of the winner’s vote (but it is only 5,000 for president).  For the U.S. Senate election in 2026, the bill would have required 47,955 signatures.

Furthermore, the original bill shrunk the petitioning period, by moving the start date from January 9 to February 19.  The petitions are due in late May.  Also it said that inactive voters can’t sign.

At the House Administration Committee hearing on January 31, there was so much testimony in opposition to the bill that the Committee changed the bill so that the new petition requirement would be 10%, and would only affect independent candidates for the legislature.

The opponents of the bill continued to talk to Representatives, and on February 6, the bill was amended again, to delete any increase in the petition requirement for any office.  Now the bill does no harm to petitioning, except to shrink the start date for petitioning from January to February.  The bill also bans “sore losers” from running write-in campaigns.

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NEW JERSEY INCREASES PETITION HURDLES

On January 30, the New Jersey legislature passed AB 5117, which increases petition requirements for minor party and independent candidates, and also increases them for candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot.  On February 3, Governor Phil Murphy signed the bill.  The bill had passed on a party line vote, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.”

The new general election petition requirement is 2,000 signatures for statewide office (up from 800), and district petitions go from 100 signatures to 250 signatures.  The bill takes effect immediately.  New Jersey holds elections for all state office in odd years, including 2025.

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WASHINGTON DROPS ATTEMPT TO REQUIRE PRIMARY PETITIONS

On January 10, five Washington State Senators introduced SB 5225, to require primary candidates to submit petitions to get on a primary ballot and also to deal with situations when two candidates with the same name are running against each other.  But on February 11, the bill was amended to delete the provision for petitions.

The bill would have required candidates for statewide office to obtain 1,000 signatures; for U.S. House, 750 signatures; and legislature, 500 signatures.  Current law does not require any petition for primary candidates, but does require them to pay a fee of 1% of the annual salary of the office.  The bill would not have eliminated the fees.

The bill’s provision for petitions was dropped after election officials pointed out that they would need to expend considerable resources checking the validity of the petitions.  All Democrats on the committee voted against petitions.

It is true that Washington primary ballots are crowded for gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections.  Because the top-two ballot includes all candidates on a single primary ballot, there are sometimes as many as thirty candidates for Governor and U.S. Senator.  But, primary ballots for Congress and state legislature are not crowded.

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NEBRASKA ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Once again, Nebraska legislators are introducing bills to end the system under which each U.S. House district elects its own presidential elector.  LB 3 would end the practice.  LR 24CA would ask the voters if they want to decide the issue.  In each of the last two elections, as well as in 2008, Democrats won one electoral vote from Nebraska, from the Omaha-based Second District.

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NO NORTH DAKOTA VOTER REGISTRATION

For decades, North Dakota has been the only state without voter registration.  HB 1287 had been introduced this year to create voter registration.  However, on February 14, the bill was defeated in the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee.  The Secretary of State had testified against it.  He said voter registration would be expensive, bad for voters, and unnecessary.  When people vote in North Dakota at the polls,, they simply show an ID that has an address.

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BALLOT ACCESS BILLS

Alabama:  HB 258 would move the primaries in midterm years from the fourth Tuesday to the second Tuesday in May.  Because the petition deadlines for independent candidates and new parties are tied to the date of the primaries, the effect of the bill would be to create an earlier petition deadline.

Alaska:  HB 4 would restore write-in space for president at the general election.  Alaska had always had write-in space for president until 2021, when the state started using ranked choice voting.  The bill that implemented ranked choice voting had removed write-in space from the ballot for president, probably because it was thought that write-ins are not compatible with ranked choice voting.  But there is now better awareness that there is no conflict.

Arizona:  SB 2844 would provide that if two or more independent candidates file for a single office, they should face off in a non-partisan primary in August, and only the winner could appear on the November ballot.  The bill does not pertain to presidential elections, however.

Connecticut:  SB 1156 would provide that if a minor party polled at least 1% for any statewide race, then it is on for all statewide races.

Illinois:  SB 2158 would convert the state to a top-two system.  The bill even includes presidential elections.  Normally bills and ballot measures for top-two always exclude presidential elections.  In the Illinois presidential primaries in 2016, the top two candidates were Hillary Clinton, with 1,039,555 votes, and Bernie Sanders with 999,494.  Donald Trump placed a distant third with 562,464.  So under the terms of the bill, the only two candidates on the general election ballot in Illinois would have been Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Illinois(2):  HB 8 would let individuals age 17 circulate petitions.

Indiana:  HB 1365 would drastically lower the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from 2% of the last vote for Secretary of State to 250 signatures.  It also eases the vote test from 2% to 2,500 votes.

Iowa:  SB 68 would change the deadline for non-presidential independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from March to August.  The old March deadline was declared unconstitutional in 2022, so the bill would not change policy, but would put the election code in conformity with the court decision.

Minnesota:  SB 651 would move the non-presidential primaries from August to the first Tuesday in March.  If the bill were to become law, the petition deadline for new parties and non-presidential independents would move to late December of the year before the election.

Mississippi:  both houses of the legislature have passed a bill to move midterm primaries from June to March.  The bills are HB 293 and SB 2656.  They aren’t identical, so neither one is through the legislature.  The effect is to move the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline to December in the year before the election.

Nebraska:  LB 521 moves the petition deadline for non-presidential independents from September 1 to August 1.  Under current law, the presidential independent deadline is August 1.

New Hampshire:  Three bills have been introduced to move the non-presidential primaries from September to an earlier month.  HB 481 and SB 222 move it to June.  The indirect result would be that the deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties would move to March.  Because even independent presidential candidates must file such a form, that deadline would be unconstitutional.  The third bill, HB 408, moves the primaries to August.

New Hampshire(2):  HB 714 would establish a top-two primary.

New Mexico:  SB 218, an omnibus election law bill, includes a provision letting petitions to recognize a new party be collected electronically.  The bill does not extend that to candidate petitions, however.

New York: A90 would establish a top-two system.  The bill says ranked choice voting should be used in the primary to select the two candidates who would run in November.  The sponsor is Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn).

One wonders, if this bill were to pass and the state would go to all the trouble to set up vote-counting equipment to handle ranked choice voting, what the purpose of the primary be?  If parties no longer have primaries to choose their nominees, and ranked choice voting exists, the primary has no purpose except to restrict who can run in November.

North Dakota:  HB 1245 would repeal the ban on paying petitioners on a per-signatures basis.  The current ban only affects initiative and referendum petitions, but not party or candidate petitions.

Oregon:  HB 3166 would set up a top-five system, but without using ranked choice voting.  If the bill were to become law, there might be general elections with four Democrats and one Republican on the ballot for a single office (or vice versa) which would obviously be unfair to the party with multiple candidates.

South Carolina:  HB 3557 would require that candidates nominated in a convention pay a filing fee.   Current law lets each party decide for itself whether to nominate by primary or convention, and the only candidates who pay fees are those who run in primaries.  The purpose of filing fees is to keep ballots from being too crowded, but there are no government ballots at party conventions, so the bill is not logical.

South Carolina(2):  HB 3640 would establish a top-two system.

South Carolina(3):  SB 205 would add write-in space for president to the general election ballot.  The state has only had government-printed ballots since 1950.  On those ballots, it has always permitted write-ins for all offices (in the general election) except for president.

Texas:  HB 1406 would abolish runoff primaries and replace them with ranked choice voting.  If the bill became law, independent candidates would have more time to petition, because under current law they can’t begin to petition until all primaries are over.

Utah:  HB 193 would reduce the number of signatures to get on a primary ballot for candidates who hadn’t shown significant support at a party endorsements meeting.  For the more important statewide offices, the petition would drop from 2% of a party’s registration to 1,000 signatures.  Lesser statewide offices would need 200 signatures.  U.S. House candidates would need 500 signatures.

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ORDER OF CANDIDATES ON BALLOTS

Arizona:  on February 4, the House unanimously passed HB 2045.  Current law puts all the nominees of the party that won the most recent gubernatorial election on the top spot.  The bill would change that, to provide for rotation, so that each party’s nominees would have the top spot in an equal number of precincts.  However, independent candidates would not be helped and would always be below the nominees of each party.

Mississippi:  on February 5, the House passed HB 38.  Current law puts the nominees of parties on the November ballot in alphabetical order of surname.  The bill says that the top spot on ballots would be reserved for the nominees of parties that had polled 10% or more of the last presidential vote.  In the November 2024, the ballot order had been Kamala Harris, Chase Oliver, Jill Stein, and Donald Trump, followed by the independent candidates.

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PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

Two states that didn’t have government-administered presidential primaries in 2024 may have them in 2028, if certain bills pass.

Hawaii:  on February 6, the Senate Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee passed SB 114, which would set up the state’s first presidential primaries.  The bill provides that all qualified parties could have their own presidential primary.

Missouri:   two bills to restore the presidential primaries were heard in committee on February 18.  They are HB 126 and HB 367.  They both set the date in March, but one sets it in the first week and the other bill sets it in the second week.  The Committee hasn’t voted yet.

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LAST TIME A MINOR PARTY OR INDEPENDENT APPEARED ON THE BALLOT FOR NON-PRESIDENTIAL STATEWIDE OFFICE

The chart below shows the most recent instance when a minor party or independent candidate was on the statewide November ballot.  The chart shows that the only two states that have no had any such candidates in the current decade are California and Washington, the two states that use top-two systems.  The point of the chart is to show how top-two systems deprive voters of their ability to vote for statewide candidates who aren’t Democrats or Republicans.

State	Office	Year	Name	Partisan Ballot Label
Alabama	Governor	2022	Jimmy Blake	Libertarian
Alaska	U.S. House	2024	John Wayne Howe	Alaskan Independence
Arizona	U.S. Senator	2024	Eduardo Quintana	Green
Arkansas	Treasurer	2024	Michael Pakko	Libertarian
California	Insurance Cmsr	2018	Steve Poizner	Party preference:  none
Colorado	Regent, Univ. of Co.	2024	T. J. Cole	Unity
Connecticut	U.S. Senator	2024	Justin C. Paglino	Green
Delaware	U.S. Senator	2024	Michael Katz	Independent Party
Florida	U.S. Senator	2024	Feena Bonoan	Libertarian
Georgia	U.S. Senator	2022	Chase Oliver	Libertarian
Hawaii	U.S. Senator	2024	Shelby Pickachu Billionaire	We the People
Idaho	Governor	2022	Paul Sand	Libertarian
Illinois	U.S. Senator	2022	William Redpath	Libertarian
Indiana	U.S. Senator	2024	Andrew Horning	Libertarian
Iowa	Governor	2022	Rick Stewart	Libertarian
Kansas	U.S. Senator	2022	David C. Graham	Libertarian
Kentucky	U.S. Senator	2020	Brad Barron	Libertarian
Louisiana	Governor	2023	Hunter Lundy	Independent Party
Maine	U.S. Senator	2024	Angus King	independent
Maryland	U.S. Senator	2024	Mike Scott	Libertarian
Massachusetts	U.S. Senator	2020	Kevin Reed	Libertarian
Michigan	U.S. Senator	2024	Joseph Solis-Mullen	Libertarian
Minnesota	U.S. Senator	2024	Rebecca Whiting	Libertarian
Mississippi	Governor	2023	Gwendolyn Gray	independent
Missouri	Governor	2024	Bill Slantz	Libertarian
Montana	Governor	2024	Kaiser Leib	Libertarian
Nebraska	Governor	2022	Scott Zimmerman	Libertarian
Nevada	U.S. Senator	2024	Chris Cunningham	Libertarian
New Hamp.	Governor	2024	Stephen Villee	Libertarian
New Jersey	U.S. Senator	2024	Christina Kahlil	Green
New Mexico	Governor	2022	Karen Bedonie	Libertarian
New York	U.S. Senator	2024	Diane Sare	LaRouche
North Carolina	Governor	2024	Mike Ross	Libertarian
North Dakota	U.S. Senator	2022	Rick Becker	independent
Ohio	U.S. Senator	2024	Donald Kissick	Libertarian
Oklahoma	Corp. Commissioner	2024	Chad Williams	Libertarian
Oregon	Secretary of State	2024	Nathalie Lithicum	Green
Pennsylvania	U.S. Senator	2024	Leila Hazou	Green
Rhode Island	Governor	2022	Elijah J. Gizzarelli	Libertarian
South Carolina	Governor	2022	Bruce Reeves	Libertarian
South Dakota	Pub. Service Cmsr.	2024	A. Gideon Oakes	Libertarian
Tennessee	U.S. Senator	2024	Tharon Chandler	independent
Texas	U.S. Senator	2024	Ted Brown	Libertarian
Utah	Governor	2024	J. Robert Latham	Libertarian
Vermont	U.S. Senator	2024	Bernie Sanders	independent
Virginia	Governor	2021	Princess Blanding	independent
Washington	Attorney General	2016	Joshua Trumbull	Libertarian
West Virginia	U.S. Senate	2024	David Moran	Libertarian
Wisconsin	U.S. Senate	2024	Phil Anderson	Disrupt the Corruption
Wyoming	U.S. House	2024	Richard Brubaker	Libertarian

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2026 PETITIONING FOR STATEWIDE OFFICES

	Party sigs	Indp sigs	LIB’T	GREEN	CONSTIT	FORWRD	Pty due	Indp due
Alabama	42,459	42,459	0	0	0	0	May 26	May 26
Alaska	(reg) 5,000	Pay fee	already on	1,539	794	?	May 4	June 1
Arizona	34,127	(est) 48,000	already on	already on	0	0	Nov 28, 25	May 6
Arkansas	10,000	10,000	0	0	0	0	April 28	May 31
Calif.	(reg 75,000	65	already on	already on	???	?	Dec 31 25	March 6
Colorado	10,000	8,000	already on	already on	already on	already on	Jan 9	July 9
Conn.	no procedure	7,500	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	Aug 10
Del.	(reg) 780	7,800	already on	already on	235	?	Aug 25	July 15
D.C.	no procedure	3,000	can’t start	already on	can’t start	can’t start	– –	Aug 5
Florida	be organized	0	already on	already on	already on	already on	Apr 24	Apr 24
Georgia	72,680	70,083	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	July 14	July 14
Hawaii	861	25	already on	already on	0	0	Feb 20	June 2
Idaho	18,102	1,000	already on	0	clready on	0	Aug 30	March 21
Illinois	no procedure	25,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	May 25
Indiana	no procedure	36,944	already on	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	June 30
Iowa	no procedure	3,500	0	0	0	0	– –	Aug 14
Kansas	20,180	5,000	already on	0	0	0	June 1	Aug 3
Kentucky	no procedure	5,000	can’ t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	Aug 11
Louisiana	1,000  + 5,000	5,000	7,538	16,753	6,409	389	June 17	June 17
Maine	(reg) 5,000	4,000	already on	already on	0	0	Jan 2	June 1
Maryld.	10,000	10,000	200	already on	0	0	Aug 3	Aug 3
Mass.	(reg) 45, 500	10,000	15,672	3,545	289	35	Feb. 1	July 28
Michigan	44,618	12,000	already on	already on	already on	0	July 16	July 16
Minn.	163,621	2,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	May 2	June 2
Miss.	be organized	1,000	already on	already on	already on	0	March 1	Feb. 2
Missouri	10,000	10,000	already on	0	0	0	Muly 27	July 27
Montana	5,000	15,985	already on	0	0	0	March 2	May 26
Nebraska	6,726	4,000	already on	0	0	0	Aug 3	Sept 1
Nevada	14,271	250	already on	0	already on	2,000	May 12	May 12
N.Hamp	24,375	3,000	0	0	0	0	Aug 4	Aug 4
N Jersey	no procedure	2,000	0	0	0	0	– –	June 2
N Mex	3,560 +14,246	14,246	0	0	0	0	June 25	June 25
N York	no procedure	45,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	May 26
No Caro	13,979	83,874	already on	already on	???	3,000	May 17	March 3
No Dak	7,000	1,000	0	0	0	0	April 6	Aug 31
Ohio	57,678	5,000	already on	0	0	20,000	July 1	May 4
Okla	34,599	0	already on	0	0	0	March 2	April 10
Oregon	29,294	22,445	already on	already on	already on	0	Aug 11	Aug 11
Penn.	no procedure	5,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start		Aug 3
R.I.	17,884	1,000	0	0	0	0	Aug 3	July 10
So.Car.	10,000	10,000	already on	already on	already on	already on	May 3	July 15
So.Dak.	3,502	3,502	already on	0	0	0	July 1	April 28
Tenn	43,498	25	in court	0	0	0	Aug 5	April 2
Texas	71,030	71,030	already on	already on	can’t start	can’t start	May 26	June 25
Utah	2,000	#1,000	already on	0	clready on	already on	Nv  30 ‘25	June 15
Vermont	be organized	500	already on	0	0	0	Dec 31 ‘25	Aug 6
Virginia	no procedure	10,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	—	June 16
Wash.	no procedure	0	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– –	May 8
W.Va.	no procedure	7,478	already on	already on	already on	0	– –	Aug 3
Wisc.	10,000	2,000	already on	already on	already on	can’t start	April 1	June 1
Wyoming	5,201	5,201	already on	0	already on	0	June 1	Aug 24
# ON			29	17	12	4

The petitioning chart above shows which parties (other than the Republicans and Democrats) are on the statewide ballot in each state for 2026.  Although the title of the chart refers to U.S. Senate, it really relates to all partisan statewide offices.  # means that a candidate who uses the independent procedure may choose a short partisan label other than just “independent.”

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NEW DNC CHAIR SUED TO ELIMINATE HIS STATE’S ONLY QUALIFIED MINOR PARTY

On February 2, the Democratic National Committee chose a new chair, Ken Martin of Minnesota.  Martin has a history of hostility toward minor parties.  Last year he sued the Minnesota Secretary of State to eliminate the Legal Marijuana Now Party from the ballot.  He won his lawsuit in the State Supreme Court, so that now Minnesota is one of only seventeen states with no ballot-qualified minor parties.  The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.

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AURORA PARTY DISSOLVES ITSELF

Recently, the Aurora Party asked the Alaska Elections Division to stop keeping track of how many registered voters it has.  It has dissolved itself.  Last year, it had qualified for a place on the ballot and had then nominated Cornel West as its presidential nominee.

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LIBERTARIAN PARTY HAS NEW NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

On February 2, the Libertarian Party National Committee chose a new chair to replace Angela McArdle, who had resigned.  The new chair is Steven Nekhaila, of Key West, Florida.  He defeated Michael Heise, a Pennsylvanian, by a vote of 9-6.  Heise had stated publicly that he had voted for Donald Trump last November, instead of Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee.  He was considered the founder of the Mises Caucus.

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MISSOURI BALLOT ACCESS HERO KEN BUSH DIES

Ballot Access News learned recently that Ken Bush died on January 12, 2024.  He was a Libertarian Party member who worked for five years to improve ballot access in his home state, Missouri.

Between 1989 and 1993, he spent hundreds of hours talking to state legislators about ballot access.  The bill to ease ballot access had to be introduced five years in a row before it was signed into law.  Ken succeeded because he was so talented at human relationships.

The first year the bill was introduced, it got a hearing in the Senate Committee that handled election laws bills.  After the proponents had testified, no legislator said a word, except Senator Richard M. Webster, who said, “No one is interested in this subject except fruits and nuts.”  Otherwise, there was dead silence.  But Ken wasn’t discouraged, and he got it introduced again in 1990, when it passed one House.  In 1991 and 1992, it passed the legislature, but Governor Ashcroft vetoed it both years.

Ken was very resourceful.  He found the former legislator who had introduced the draconian 1953 ballot access law.  Ken persuaded that former legislator to make a statement saying the 1953 severe law had been a mistake, and that legislators ought to pass Ken’s bill to undo the damage.  That was very effective.