Ballot Access News

Louisiana’s House Bill 17, passed by the legislature on Friday, January 19, and likely to be signed by the Governor soon, is flawed.  This is the bill to have party nominees for Congress.

It says that only qualified parties which polled 5% of the vote for a statewide office in the last state office election, or the last presidential election, may have primaries.  Louisiana has three qualified parties that did not poll 5%:  Libertarian, Green, and Independent Party.  The bill has no provision for how those parties to nominate congressional candidates.

No member of those three parties would be permitted to petition, because the petition procedure to get on the general election ballot can only be used by candidates who are not a member of a qualified party.

There is no provision in the bill for these parties to nominate by convention.

It is unconstitutional for any state to completely exclude any adult citizen who meets the age requirement from running for Congress.  However, the bill doesn’t take effect until 2026, so there will be a chance for the legislature to fix this problem in the regular 2024 session, which begins in April.

The last time Louisiana had party nominees in Congressional elections was in 2008 and 2010.  The 2006 bill providing for congressional elections was Senate Bill 18, but it didn’t take effect until the 2008 election.  Unlike the new bill, the 2006 bill provided that all qualified parties should have their own primary for Congress.  The system used in 2008 and 2020 was repealed in 2010, but the repeal didn’t take effect until 2012, so 2008 and 2010 were the only elections in this century with party nominees for Congress.

This CNN article has links to the decisions so far in the anti-Trump ballot access cases.  Links are below the map of the United States.

The story does not list the cases filed by John Anthony Castro, or a few similar cases filed by other little-known individuals.  The CNN story would have been better if it had been more inclusive.  Also the map is somewhat deceptive, because it seems to show that Trump is off the ballot in Maine and Colorado, but actually he is on the ballot in those states and all states in which he filed.

On December 19, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 17. The final version of the bill contains the Senate amendments.

The bill does not take effect until the 2026 election.  It allows qualified parties to have nominees for Congress and some state offices, but not statewide executive officers nor legislators.

Independent voters may vote in a partisan primary.  Primaries will be in March.

The bill makes ballot access considerably worse for non-presidential independent candidates.  Formerly they could run with just a filing fee.  Now they need a petition of 5,000 signatures for U.S. Senate, and 1,000 for U.S. House, and voters cannot sign if they are registered members of a qualified party.  This provision is likely unconstitutional.  A similar law in Arizona was struck down in 1999 in Campbell v Hull, and there are no precedents upholding such a restriction.  Independent candidates are appealing to the entire electorate, and it makes no sense that some voters can’t sign for an independent, especially if they haven’t voted in a partisan primary.

The filing fee for independent presidential candidates rises from $500 to $1000, but because the bill does not take effect in 2024, that change does not affect the 2024 presidential election.

The bill says only qualifed parties that polled 5% for a statewide office in the last election may have a primary, and is silent about how smaller qualified partie nominate.  Presumably they will nominate by convention.  Here is a summary of the Senate amendments which became part of the bill.