On August 1, the New Mexico Secretary of State informed Jon Barrie that he doesn’t have enough valid signatures to be on the November ballot as the Independent American Party nominee for U.S. Senate. He would have been the first minor party or independent candidate for U.S. Senate on the New Mexico ballot since 1996 if he had had enough valid signatures. He was told he lacks 277 valid signatures.
The state requires 6,018 valid signatures. On June 26 he had submitted 10,279 signatures. He had already successfully collected 3,009 signatures on a different petition to qualify the Independent American Party. New Mexico, alone among the states, requires a newly-qualifying party to submit one petition to qualify itself, and then separate petitions for each of its nominees (other than presidential nominees).
Barrie had created the Independent American Party mostly as a vehicle so that he could run for U.S. Senate. If he had run as an independent, he would have needed 18,054 valid signatures. He will contest the finding that he did not have enough valid signatures. Thanks to Gary Odom for this news.