An independent candidate for congress in the upcoming New Mexico special election is trying to remove the Libertarian Party nominee from the June ballot. The lower court rejected the challenge, and the independent candidate appealed. This story describes the briefs before the State Supreme Court, in which the Secretary of State and the Libertarian Party are on the same side. The briefs were filed on May 18.

The independent candidate’s argument that the law is too easy is not sensible. The law does not say that a major party for district or county office only needs to get 5% of the total vote cast for president or governor merely within his or her race; it says that the candidate needs to poll that number of votes cast in the entire state. The independent challenger’s argument about a dog-catcher candidate’s vote being enough to establish major party status is thus erroneous. There is no such elected office anyway.

Section 1-7-7 says, “Major political party” means any qualified political party, any of whose candidates received as many as five percent of the total number of votes cast at the last preceding general election for the office of governor or president.”