On May 22, the Florida government filed this brief in Independent Party of Florida v Lee, n.d., 4:20cv-110. This is the lawsuit that challenges a law passed in 2011 that even if a party is a qualified party, it can’t be on for president unless the Federal Election Commission recognizes it as a “national committee”, or unless it submits a petition of 132,781 signatures by July 15. The law was not enforced in the 2012 election, but on September 7, 2016, the Secretary of State reversed course and said he would enforce it for the 2016 election. As a result, the presidential nominees of the Independent Party (Evan McMullin) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (Gloria La Riva) were kept off the 2016 ballot. Those two parties hare the plaintiffs in the current case.
The government brief attacks the two plaintiff parties by saying they have never run any candidates in Florida for office other than President. But the Independent Party ran two nominees for legislature in 2012, and they did very well. Nancy Argenziano polled 42.03% for State House, 34th district. Kerry Bibb polled 32.66% for State House, 78th district.
The government brief disputes my evidence. My declaration had stated that, outside of California, no minor party or independent candidate petition had ever overcome a requirement greater than 130,000 signatures. The state says the Kendrick Meek met such a standard, but Kendrick Meek was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010, not a minor party or independent candidate. Furthermore his petition, which was in lieu of the filing fee, overcame a hurdle of 112,476 signatures. The state also says that in 1996, the Libertarian and Reform Parties “may” have completed the 3% petition, but they did not. They each did the 1% presidential petition, which n 1996 was 65,596 signatures.
The state says the Eleventh Circuit previously upheld Florida’s petition of 3%, but that was not a presidential petition. It also says the Eleventh Circuit upheld Alabama’s 3% petition, but, again, Alabama lets presidential candidates on the ballot with a petition of 5,000 signatures, although that procedure requires that the ballot label be “independent.”
Page 17 of the state’s brief says that if a ballot-qualified party is recognized by the FEC, it can be on for president in Florida if it only has 3 Florida residents. That is not true, because Florida law requires presidential elector candidates to be registered members of the party that nominated them, and Florida has 29 electoral votes, so a party must have at least that many registered members.
