On March 25, the Arkansas Libertarian Party launched its petition drive to regain its qualified party status. Here is a copy of the petition. Arkansas law requires such petitions to be completed in three months. It requires 10,000 signatures.

The petition wouldn’t be necessary if the party had polled enough votes in November 2016, but the vote test requires 3% for President (in presidential years) or 3% for Governor (in gubernatorial years). In 2016 Gary Johnson got 2.64% in Arkansas.

The state legislature has been asked several times to modify the vote test so that it is not so onerous. For example, if the law required 3% for any statewide race, the Libertarian Party (and also the Green Party, which has been qualified in Arkansas in the recent past) would easily have remained on the ballot. In 2016, the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate, Frank Gilbert, polled 3.96%. In 2014, six statewide Libertarian nominees polled over 3%.

Because the Libertarian Party will be a “new” party when it completes its 2018 petition, it will nominate by convention. If it had remained on the ballot after the November 2016 election, by contrast, it would be required to nominate by primary. Ironically, if it nominated by primary in 2018, anyone who wants a Libertarian nomination would need to file by February 2018. But because the party will nominate by convention in 2018, it can recruit candidates as late as March 2018 and then decide whether to nominate them by May.

This article is mostly about the Maine legislature, but it has national data on all legislatures. It highlights extreme differences in the success rate of bills. In Colorado, 60% of introduced bills are signed into law. At the other extreme, in New York, only 2% of bills are enacted.

The Nevada bill for a top-two system, SB 103, will not advance in this year’s legislative session. Senator Aaron Ford (D-Las Vegas), the Senate Majority Leader, does not support the bill.