In Wisconsin, all qualified parties nominate by primary. So even when a minor party is ballot-qualified, members of that party must submit petitions to be on their own party’s primary ballot. The Green Party is a qualified party. This year the only Green Party member who filed a petition for a statewide office is Pete Karas, who filed 2,840 to run for Secretary of State in the Green Party primary. The requirement is 2,000 signatures.

Karas needs to poll at least 1% in the general election, or the Green Party will lose its qualified status.

On May 29, an individual who has held office in the Democratic Party challenged the Karas petition, on the grounds that Karas used an obsolete petition form. In April, a few days before the start of petitioning, the state altered the petition forms so that now it says the circulator is a resident of Wisconsin. The old form did not say that, because until this year, out-of-state circulators were legal. But under a new law, out-of-state circulators are no longer permitted to work in Wisconsin, except they make work on presidential petitions.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will hear the challenge on Tuesday, June 9. Karas is submitting affidavits from his circulators that they are each Wisconsin residents.