The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a second month’s extention to the Arizona Secretary of State, in Arizona Libertarian Party v Hobbs, 19-757. This is the case that challenges the petition requirements for members of small qualified parties to place candidates on their own primary ballot. Originally Arizona wasn’t going to respond, but the Court asked for a response, which was to be submitted March 2. Then the state won an extension to April 1, and now the state’s response is due May 1.
In the meantime, the 2020 election will be the third election in which the restriction is in place. In 2016 and 2018, the law, passed in 2015, kept all Libertarians running for congress and state office off the ballot. The law only applied to the Libertarian Party, not the Green Party, and many Greens were on the ballot in Arizona in 2016 and 2018. Now, however, the Green Party is no longer on the ballot. So for the first time since 1976, there probably won’t be any third party candidates on the Arizona ballot for Congress in 2020.