On March 28, the Arkansas Libertarian Party filed a federal lawsuit against the new Arkansas ballot access for newly-qualifying parties. Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Thurston, 4:19cv-214. The case is assigned to Judge Kristine Baker, an Obama appointee.

Last month the state raised the number of signatures from 10,000 to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which for 2020 is 26,746 signatures.

Arkansas also required a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote in 1996, when the Reform Party tried and failed to qualify. The Reform Party then sued and won its lawsuit. The 3% petition was declared unconstitutional, given the historical record that it had been in effect since 1977 and never been used successfully. The state appealed, but then dropped its appeal. However the legislature didn’t change the 3% requirement. It did move the deadline from January to May, and permitted five months to obtain the signatures, and said if the original petition was judged deficient, the party had two more weeks to get more signatures. Later the May deadline was moved earlier, and just this month the deadline was moved still earlier, to September of the year before the election.

The Green Party sued over the 3% in 2006, and it won its case also. In 2007 the legislature lowered the petition to 10,000, and action reversed by the legislature last month.

On March 27, a U.S. District Court set a date for a jury trial in Gonzales v Madigan, n.d. 1:16cv-7915. This is a lawsuit filed in 2016 around the Illinois Democratic primary for Representative, 22nd district, in Chicago. Speaker Michael Madigan represents that district. In 2016 Jason Gonzales filed to run against Madigan. Madigan then allegedly recruited two other candidates with Hispanic surnames to file in that primary. Madigan won that primary against his three opponents.

In the Seventh Circuit, there was a precedent that recruiting sham candidates violates the U.S. Constitution. Gonzales filed a lawsuit to invalidate the primary. It is now a very old case, but it is moving forward.

California State Senator Tom Umberg has amended his SB 505, the bill to set detailed guidelines on who can get on a presidential primary ballot. The “debates participation” option is now more stringent. Originally the bill just said a candidate must participate in a “national debate”. Now it says only debates sponsored by ballot-qualified parties count, and the debate must be available for viewing in at least two states. However it does not say the debate must be broadcast, so it could be a You Tube. Here is the amended copy of the bill.