Identical bills have been introduced in the New Jersey legislature to increase the petition requirements for both primary and general elections. SB 3994 and AB 5117 increase the general election statewide petition from 800 signatures to 2,000. For U.S. House, the increase is from 100 to 250 signatures.

For primaries, statewide petitions rise from 1,000 to 2,500 signatures. U.S. House rises from 200 to 500. Legislature rises from 100 to 250.

AB 5117 was introduced December 9, and passed the Assembly on December 19 by a vote of 46-27. SB 3994 passed the Senate State Government Committee on December 19. Thanks to Deirdre Goldfarb for this news.

At the November 5 election, Libertarian candidates for U.S. Senate received 1,025,765 votes. This is not the first time the party’s candidates for U.S. Senate have topped one million. It also happened in 1992, 2000, 2016, and 2020.

The 2024 total includes the Wisconsin vote for Philip Norman Anderson, the Libertarian whose ballot label was “Disrupt the Corruption”, not “Libertarian.” He held himself out as the Libertarian nominee, and was simultaneously a Libertarian Party nominee for presidential elector, as well as recent past state party chair. See this newspaper story about his campaign. He polled 42,315 votes.

Two New Jersey Assemblymembers introduced AB 5116 on December 9. It changes New Jersey primary ballot format to an office group ballot. It is pending in the Assembly Committee on Ballot Design.

It has no effect on the general election ballot.

The sponsors are Benjie Wimberly and Al Barlas. Both are Democrats.