On May 9, Rocky De La Fuente and Jill Stein dismissed their ballot access case in the Tenth Circuit. The case had been filed last year to challenge the law that required independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, to submit over 40,000 signatures, whereas an entire new party could get on the ballot with fewer than 25,000 signatures.
Now that the law has changed, so that the number of signatures for new parties and independent presidential candidates match, the lawsuit is no longer relevant. The new law, signed by the Governor on May 5, says independent presidential candidates and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties can get on the ballot with no petition if they pay a large filing fee. The amount of that filing fee is not known for certain yet.
If the 2020 presidential filing fee turns out to be $35,000, it is possible a new lawsuit will be filed over the amount of the fee, but that may be several years in the future.
Actually, $35,000 would not be that bad. Consider if the requirement was 10,000 signatures and you had to pay petitioners, you would spend a lot more than that.
@Michigan Voter
Here in NY the petition requirement is 15,000 and I think we spent over $100,000 getting that so with that alternative its not THAT bad, still ridiculous but most parties will go that route.
It is a shame that they dismissed the lawsuit before we knew the fate of SB323. We just had to wait a couple of more days.