On April 12, the Arizona Libertarian Party filed a federal lawsuit against the law passed last year that makes it difficult for members of small qualified parties to get themselves on their own party’s primary ballot. Arizona Libertarian Party v Reagan, 1:16cv-1019.

The old law required signatures for a member of any party to get on a primary ballot equal to one-half of 1% of that party’s registration (for statewide office), or 1% of that party’s registration for district and county office. The new law changes the denominator from the number of registered voters in that party, to the number of voters who are in that party or who are not members of any qualified party. The new law does not change the law for “new” parties, so the new law, for 2016 and 2018, has no impact on the Green Party, and very little effect on the major parties. But it vastly increases the primary petition burden for Libertarians. For 2016, a statewide Libertarian needs 3,023 signatures of registered Libertarians or registered independents, whereas under the old law, 134 signatures of registered Libertarians were needed. The case is assigned by Judge David T. Campbell, a Bush Jr. appointee.

Heavy.com has this story by Stephanie Dube Dwilson about instances in at least four states recently in which voters have had their party affiliation changed without their knowledge or consent. The four states mentioned in the story are Arizona, California, Connecticut, and New York.

On April 13, the Third Circuit heard oral arguments in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, 15-3046. The issue is the unique Pennsylvania system that puts petitioning groups at risk of court costs of up to $110,000 if they submit a petition that doesn’t have enough valid signatures. Last year a U.S. District Court had invalidated the system. On the appeal, the state did not actually disagree with the substance of the lower court decision; instead it argued that the decision should be overturned because the plaintiffs had sued the wrong Defendants. However, the three judges at the Third Circuit oral argument seemed to disagree with the state about that.

There was much discussion about what the remedy should be for the 2016 election. The attorney for the three parties that filed the case (Constitution, Green, and Libertarian) mentioned that the legislature has had a ballot access bill pending. SB 495, since last year. He said the legislature could pass that bill and fill the gap in the law. He mentioned that the Libertarian Party has over 45,000 registered members in Pennsylvania, and surely that shows that party has already shown a modicum of support and should not be required to submit a 2016 petition. The pending bill also uses registration instead of petitions to determine which parties should be on the ballot. The hearing lasted 30 minutes and supporters of the lawsuit were in the audience.