On April 10, the New Mexico Supreme Court will hear a case over whether petitions to place legislative candidates on the primary ballot are valid, even if the petitions didn’t list what district the candidate is running in. See this story.
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On April 4, the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee passed HB 1058, but the Committee amended it so that it is less helpful. The original bill lowered the number of signatures from 5% of the last vote cast, to exactly 22,500 signatures. The amended bill retains the 5%, but says it is 5% of the last gubernatorial vote. The current law requires 5% of the past presidential vote in midterm years, and 5% of the last gubernatorial vote in presidential years. Therefore, as amended, the bill only helps in midterm years.
If the bill passes in the form as amended by the Senate Rules Committee, the petition requirement in 2014 would be 51,739 signatures. By contrast, in 2010, 73,134 signatures were required, because in 2010 the law required 5% of the last presidential vote.
On April 4, the Nebraska Senate unanimously passed LB 1035, which makes it easier for parties to remain ballot-qualified. Existing law requires a party to poll 5% of the vote every two years. The bill says that when a party meets the 5% vote test, it is then automatically on the ballot for four years. This is very similar to a bill in Utah that also passed recently. In both states, the Libertarian Party did the work to get the bills passed. In Nebraska, the Secretary of State’s office also helped.
On April 3, the deadline for newly-qualifying parties to file petitions in New Mexico, the Constitution Party submitted 4,811 signatures, and the Green Party submitted 4,280 signatures. The law requires 3,009 valid signatures.
Also, another party called the Independent American Party submitted a petition. It is not known how many signatures it submitted. Nor is it known if this is a party with a national affiliation. If any reader knows more, please comment.
New Mexico already had five qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Independent Party, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.
It is now possible for anyone to search a database and see who signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker. See this story. The searchable data base does not include the address of signers.