On January 15, attorneys for the Connecticut Secretary of State filed a 15-page brief in defense of the ban on out-of-state circulators. The state brief says that Connecticut ballot access procedures for minor parties and independents are easier than the procedures of most states. This is not true and can be rebutted. Between the period 1992 and 2012, the Connecticut general election ballot only had 3.2 presidential candidates on the ballot (in addition to the Democratic and Republican nominees), whereas the average state had 4.4 such candidates. Connecticut was 36th among the 51 jurisdictions that participate in presidential elections. This data is in the June 1, 2014 print issue of Ballot Access News.
To show how difficult Connecticut ballot access is, only Gary Johnson successfully petitioned for President in Connecticut in 2012. The Green Party nominee has not appeared on the Connecticut ballot in either of the last two presidential elections.
The government brief also says that the Libertarian Party was able to place its presidential nominee on the ballot in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections. But if the state had included the entire history of the Libertarian Party, it would have had to admit that the Libertarian Party has failed to place its presidential nominee on the Connecticut ballot in four of the eleven presidential elections it participated in: 1972, 1976, 1984, and 2008.
The state also says that challenges to petitions are common in Connecticut, and if there is a challenge, and it goes to court, and the circulator lives out-of-state, it will take longer for that circulator to arrive in Connecticut and that would delay such lawsuits. The state brief does not even discuss the rights of petition circulators themselves.
