On June 5, independent New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Ken Miyagishima filed a lawsuit to overturn the 2% petition requirement for statewide independent candidates. The lawsuit was filed in Santa Fe district court. See this story. The case is Miyagishima v Touloouse Oliver, d101cv-2026-01571. It is before Judge Matthew Wilson.
No independent candidate has ever been on the ballot for Governor of New Mexico. New Mexico has never had easy ballot access requirements for independent candidates, although in the past New Mexico had very easy ballot access for minor parties. The only statewide independent candidate petitions that succeeded in New Mexico were those for president in 1980, 1992, and 2004; and one for U.S. Senate in 1996. Ever since 2019 the independent presidential petition has been one-half of 1%, so I am excluding instances of presidential petition usages that were after 2019.
RFK Jr. qualified for the ballot in New Mexico in 2024 as an independent presidential candiate but he withdrew his name from the ballot there.
2% doesn’t seek very difficult.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=156626
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Andy, in 2024 the New Mexico independent presidential petition was one-half of 1%. The legislature made it easier for independent presidential candidates than candidates for other statewide office in 2019.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/donald-trump-says-rain-why-054726226.html
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Gary, does 14,246 signatures sound difficult? Why should New Mexico require that many signatures, when next-door Utah, which has a bigger population than New Mexico, only requires 1,000?
If you can’t get 14246 signatures how do you expect to win the race?
In France, presidential candidates qualify for the ballot with support from local officials. They need 500 from 40,000+ local officials also with some distribution requirements: from at least 30 different French Departments, with no more than 50 from one.
So how could that be implemented in the US? Draw a panel from the whole electorate, similar to a jury but much larger. Let’s say 1% of previous vote. So in New Mexico that would be around 7,000 voters. Possibly hold presentations in each county, with either a candidate or a surrogate. Qualification might be Top 10.
Advantage: Easier to check support from representative sample of electorate, than Scribbly Scrawley who signed in Walmart parking lot during a sandstorm. Also possible to gather support from more remote counties.
Tbe requirement in New Mexico is fairly difficult for non-presidential candidates. The independent candidate for Governor needs around 14,000 and something signatures, which is a lot for a low population state, plus if more than one candidate is running for the same office a New Mecico registered voter can only sign a petition for one candidate for each office.