Arkansas SB 277 has been introduced. It has four Senate sponsors and 54 House sponsors, and is backed by the Secretary of State. It lowers the number of signatures for a new or previously unqualified party from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to exactly 10,000 signatures. It moves the petition deadline to three weeks before the primary. In presidential years the Arkansas primary is in March; in midterm years it is in May.
It permits the petition to circulate starting January 1 of any odd year, which gives proponents approximately fourteen months. The old law required the petition to be completed in three months.
This bill exists because the old law was held unconstitutional last year.
Being due 3 weeks before a March or May primary is still a pretty early deadline for a party petition.
The petition is not required to start circulating on January 1; that is just the earliest date for a signature.
What would a Constitutional amendment ensure fair and equitable ballot access look like?
Ballot access shall henceforth be ensured everywhere by the presence of a party precinct captain who flies the party’s banner in that precinct in between elections, and shows up on election evening to marshal his party’s forces at the election hall.