June 2025 Ballot Access News Print Edition

Posted on by June 20, 2025
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SIXTH CIRCUIT UPHOLDS TENNESSEE BALLOT ACCESS RESTRICTION FOR MINOR PARTIES

On May 1, the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in Darnell v Hargett, 24-5856.  It upholds the Tennessee procedure to place a new or previously unqualified party on the ballot, a procedure that requires the signatures of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote.  Currently that is 43,498 signatures.  In the recent past, it has sometimes been as high as 56,083 signatures.

The decision is by Judge Chad Readler, a Trump appointee.  It is also signed by Judge Amul Thapar, a Trump appointee; and Eric Clay, a Clinton appointee.

The decision is only nine pages and does not mention any U.S. Supreme Court precedent.  It merely says that because the same law had been upheld in 2016, in a case filed by the Green and Constitution Parties, the matter is settled.  The Darnell case is a Libertarian Party lawsuit.

Other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have sometimes invalidated ballot access laws even though the same law had been upheld by another court in the recent past.

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Two Independent Candidates for New Jersey Governor are Found to Lack Enough Valid Signatures

Posted on by June 20, 2025
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New Jersey elects its Governor on November 4, 2025.  Five candidates filed petitions to be on the November ballot, but now the two independent candidates have been removed because they did not have at least 2,000 valid signatures.  See this story.

That leaves the three minor party nominees for Governor still on the ballot.  They are the nominees of the Green, Libertarian, and Socialist Workers Party.

For Assembly, only six petitions were submitted, by three Greens, two Libertarians, and one independent.  Challenges to one of the Greens and one of the Libertarians removed those two candidates.  So the only legislative candidate on the ballot, for the 80 seats, are two Greens, one Libertarian, and one independent.

Georgia Recorder Story on Recent Catoosa County Eleventh Circuit Decision on Party Rights

Posted on by June 20, 2025
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The Georgia Recorder has this story about the recent Eleventh Circuit decision in the Catoosa County Republican Party lawsuit.  The decision remanded the case back to the lower court, but suggested that parties do have a Freedom of Association right to keep candidates off their primary ballot if the party believes the candidate is not a bona fide member.

The story suggests that if the Catoosa County Republican Party wins in U.S. District Court, that could enable the statewide Republican Party to keep Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger off its 2026 primary ballot, because the state convention had already passed a resolution disavowing Raffensperger.

New York Legislature Passes Bill Expanding Ability of Parties to Expel Members

Posted on by June 20, 2025
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On June 17, the New York Assembly passed S7111 by 82-49.  It expands the ability of parties to expel members believed to be not in sympathy with the party’s political stances.  The law already let parties do this if they have county committees in the affected counties.  The bill says a party can also exert this power if it doesn’t have county committees; the power would be exercised by the state committee.

The Working Families Party had requested this bill after an incident in 2024 when Republican-sympathetic voters had enrolled in WFP and altered one of its U.S. House nomination contests.