The Associated Press has this story, which has appeared in several Ohio newspapers, about the dilemma that Libertarians in Ohio are in, for the 2015 partisan local elections.  Although most odd year elections in Ohio are non-partisan, some cities have partisan elections this year.  Libertarians filed in three such cities.  Two of them have been told the Libertarian Party isn’t a ballot qualified party any longer, while in a third county, the filing has been accepted.

The party is waiting for a U.S. District Court to rule on whether the 2013 ballot access law is constitutional or not.  If the law is not constitutional, then it is likely the Libertarian Party is still qualified.

On March 10, U.S. District Court Judge Andrea Wood postponed the status conference in Libertarian Party of Illinois v Illinois State Board of Elections from March 11 to March 25.  She had already said that she would issue an opinion before the next status conference.  Therefore, the fact that she has moved the status conference two weeks into the future shows that the decision won’t be out today or tomorrow, but surely it will be out before March 25.

The issue is the unique Illinois law that says a newly-qualifying party must run a full slate of candidates.  No other state has ever had such a requirement, and Illinois does not require already-established parties to run a full slate.  The Libertarian case was filed in 2012 and has never had a declaratory decision, although when this case was assigned to a different judge, that earlier judge had enjoined the law, saying it was probably unconstitutional.

On February 25, the Arizona House of Representatives passed HB 2608.  It makes it far more difficult for a member of a small qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot.  Existing law makes the number of signatures 1% of a party’s registration.  The bill converts that to one-fourth of 1% of all the registered voters for statewide office, and one-half of 1% for U.S. House and legislature.

It is irrational to raise the number of signatures for primary ballot access, since no minor party primary ballot in Arizona has ever been crowded.  It is extraordinarily rare for a minor party primary ballot in Arizona to have more than a single candidate listed.

The bill passed on a party line vote.  Every Republican who voted on the bill voted “yes”.  Every Democrat who voted on the bill voted “No.”  Currently the only two ballot-qualified parties in Arizona, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, are the Libertarian and Green Party.