On March 12, the New Mexico Secretary of State determined that the Green Party is a qualified minor party.  The law required parties that ran a presidential candidate to poll at least one-half of 1% for president last November.  The initial election returns had said the party met the vote test by three votes, but later the official results were revised and said the party had missed it by six votes.  The reason for the ambiguity had never been explained.

The Green Party is the only ballot-qualified minor party in New Mexico.  None of the others got as much as one-half of 1% last year for president.

On February 11, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida’s closed primary system. Polelle v Florida Secretary of State, 22-14031. The plaintiff is an independent voter in Sarasota County, which is an overwhelmingly Republican county. He argued that his right to vote is being denied because he could not cast a vote in the Republican primary, and the winner of the Republican primary always wins in Sarasota County. The decision mentions that only Republicans have won Sarasota County elections for county office ever since 1968.

The vote is 3-0, but the judges disagreed with each other on whether the plaintiff had standing. Here is the decision, which is by Judge Rosin Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee. It says the plaintiff has standing. Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, agreed on standing. Judge Gerald Tjoflat, Ford appointee, argued that the plaintiff did not have standing.

The opinion is quite long, because of the standing issue. The majority opinion has 55 pages (mostly on standing) before the main issue is even discussed. The merits portion has another 24 pages. Judge Abudu wrote a five-page concurrence. Judge Tjoflat wrote 27 pages on why he believes the plaintiff has no standing.

On March 3, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed SB 211. It requires initiative circulators to file an affidavit when that circulator’s first batch of signatures is submitted. The circulator must then not collect any more signatures until the Secretary of State notifies the circulator that his or her affidavit has been processed. Here is the text.