On January 28, the Arkansas House unanimously passed HB 1152, which moves the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline from March to May. However the law would still require independents to file a declaration of candidacy in March. This bill exists because a year ago, a U.S. District Court struck down the March deadline.
On January 30, the Arkansas Senate passed SB 163 by a vote of 27-7. It raises the number of signatures needed for a newly-qualifying party from 10,000 signatures to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be almost 27,000 signatures for 2020. Every Republican Senator voted for the bill, and one Democrat, Senator Greg Leding, also voted for it.
Twice, a U.S. District Court had ruled the old 3% petition unconstitutional, in 1996 in a Reform Party case, and again in a 2006 Green Party case.
Furthermore, the deadline for the petition is now January 2. Yet the federal courts had twice in the past ruled that similar Arkansas party petition deadlines were unconstitutional. In 1977 the American Party won a lawsuit that the April deadline was too early. In 1996 the Reform Party won a lawsuit against the January deadline. Every time a party won against the deadline in court, the legislature would fix it, but then a few years later they would forget what had happened, and make it earlier again. After the 1996 decision the legislature moved that deadline to July, and then to May, and then to January.
If this bill is signed into law, it will be an easy target for a lawsuit.
On January 30, the Maryland Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in Johnston v Lamone, 1:18cv-3988. This is the case on whether it is constitutional to force an unqualified party that has over 10,000 registered members to submit a petition of 10,000 names. The Libertarian Party has over 22,000 registered members, and argues that a petition of 10,000 names would prove nothing, because it is obvious that there are already over 10,000 people who support the party.
Even if you don’t normally read legal briefs, this is one clear, short, and even somewhat entertaining.
West Virginia Delegate Marshall Wilson has introduced HB 2753. It codifies the existing practice that lets unqualified parties use stand-in presidential and vice-presidential candidates on their petitions. It also says stand-ins can be used for gubernatorial petitions.
Stand-ins are especially useful for independent presidential candidates who haven’t chosen their vice-presidential running mate when the petition starts to circulate. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the news about the bill.
Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) has introduced SB 141, which would lower the number of signatures needed for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties. It would change the statewide requirement from 25,000 to 5,000. It would change the district and partisan county offices from 5% of the last vote cast, to the number that a member of the largest party in that district needs to get on the primary ballot.
For U.S. House, in the typical district, that would be slightly less than 1,000 signatures.
Somewhat similar bills have been introduced in the past in Illinois and didn’t pass, but they were sponsored by Republicans. This is the first such bill to have a Democratic sponsor. Illinois Democrats are the majority in each house of the legislature, and Illinois has a Democratic governor. Thanks to Sam Cahnman for the news about the bill.
