On February 7, a U.S. District Court in Hawaii upheld a state law that requires independent presidential candidates to submit six times as many signatures as are needed for a new party. Nader v Cronin, civ 04-611.
For 2008, independent presidential candidates need 4,291 signatures, whereas new parties only need 663 signatures. When a new party qualifies in Hawaii, the state is obliged to print up primary ballots for it, and it is entitled to nominate for all partisan offices in the state.
Judge J. Michael Seabright said “Although groups seeking to form a new political party needed 677 signatures in 2004, political parties are subject to different requirements not applicable to independent candidates, including filing the petition by April 1, 2004 (as opposed to September 3, 2004 for independent presidential candidate petitions). Further, political party candidates may be subject to primary elections or party conventions, while independent candidates’ names are placed directly on the ballot upon submission of a valid petition.”
Of course, the “burden” of holding a primary is a burden on state elections administrators, not a burden on the party.
As to the fact that petitions to qualify a new party in Hawaii are due much earlier, the judge probably didn’t know that in 1986, another U.S. District Judge issued an injunction against the Hawaii April deadline on the grounds that it was unconstitutionally early. The 1986 decision ordered the state to put the Libertarian Party on the ballot, even though it didn’t finish its petition by the deadline. Afterwards, the party never returned to court to obtain declaratory relief, so the April deadline still exists in the law.
Nader’s current lawsuit against Hawaii also included a charge that petition-checking procedures in Hawaii violate due process. Judge Seabright feels this claim may have merit, and he set a trial for March 4 on that issue.