On April 14, this brief was filed by the plaintiffs in Whitaker v Herrera, a case pending in state court (2nd district), cv-2010-13274. The case was filed by the Green Party of New Mexico, and some candidates, including an independent candidate and a major party candidate. It challenges: (1) the number of signatures for candidates, which are discriminatory and arbitrary; (2) the late June petition deadline for write-in candidates and independent candidates; (3) the April petition deadline for new parties; (4) the law on which parties get listed first on the ballot, which says that major parties have a random chance for the top line, but minor parties are always lower on the ballot than the major parties. The lawsuit also attacks the law because independent candidates are always on the bottom line.

The part of the lawsuit on the number of signatures for candidates especially focuses on the fact that the law requires independent candidates to get three times as many signatures as minor party nominees.