On November 7, Texas voters in the 22nd U.S. House district will see two races for that seat on their ballot. One is the regular term, and one is the special election for the two-month term for the remainder of this year. Oddly, the special election ballot will list no Democrat; the regular election will list no Republican; but both elections will list Bob Smither, the Libertarian. Democrat Nick Lampson refuses to run for the two-month term, and so the two-month term ballot will include 4 Republicans and Smither.

On September 1, the Colorado Supreme Court refused to hear Colorado Libertarian Party v Doty. This action by the Supreme Court is shameful. Colorado law permits qualified major parties to nominate people who have not been members of that party for an entire year. But Colorado law denies this right to qualified minor parties. There is no principle of law, and no principle of political philosophy or political science, that justifies such discrimination.

The lower state court had upheld the discriminatory treatment, based on a Colorado Supreme Court decision in 1991, but that case involved an unqualified political party, not a qualified party (even the 1991 precedent is unsupported by any philosophical or theoretical foundation).

This is the second court action recently (the first was from Pennsylvania) that says qualified minor parties are subject to ballot access burdens that qualified major parties are not subject to. Both lawsuits need to be placed before the U.S. Supreme Court. Once a state has recognized that a party has enough voter support to meet the state’s own definition of “party”, then all such parties should enjoy the same right of association.

Last week, a challenge to the New York Libertarian statewide petition was filed by a Republican. However, the challenger’s specific complaint is that the Libertarian logo is too similar to the Conservative Party logo. Even if this challenge succeeds, the only result would be that the Libertarians would need to submit a new logo. A “logo” is a cartoon symbol of a party that appears on the ballot at the top of that party’s column or to the left of its party row.

The Conservative Party logo, starting in 1962, has been the torch of the Statute of Liberty. The Libertarian logo in New York, starting in 1988, has been the full statue. The challenge is not likely to succeed, since each party has been using its current logo for 18 years and no one objected earlier.