Last year, Bob Barr (Libertarian Party presidential nominee) and his candidates for presidential elector filed a federal lawsuit against Oklahoma’s procedure for an independent presidential candidate to get on the ballot, a petition signed by 3% of the last presidential vote (in 2008, that was 43,913 valid signatures). The case went to U.S. District Court David Russell, who had upheld that same law both in 1996 and 2000, and who upheld it again. The Barr candidates for presidential elector have decided not to appeal to the 10th circuit, in the hopes that a complete lack of any ballot access litigation will make it more likely that the Oklahoma legislature will reform the ballot access laws.
Lobbyists have noted that when state legislators hear that a constitutional lawsuit is pending, their tendency is to refuse to support legislation on the same subject, saying they would rather wait for the court decision. HB 1072, easing the ballot access laws for new and previously unqualified parties, did pass both houses of the Oklahoma legislature this year, although final passage must wait for 2010 since the conference committee did not pass the bill this year.