On November 28, the Arizona Green Party submitted its petition for party status. It had approximately 63,000 signatures. The requirement is 34,116. Assuming the petition is valid, the party will be on the Arizona ballot for 2024 and 2026. In Arizona, when a party submits a petition, it gets the next two elections. And as a “new” party, it is very easy for it to nominate candidates in its primary. The petition requirement is one-tenth of 1% of the number of registered voters in the district, and a write-in candidate in the primary of a “new” party only needs one write-in vote to get the nomination, assuming he or she outpolls everyone else. This liberal write-in policy is due to a winning lawsuit filed by the Socialist Workers Party in Arizona back in 1980.

The Libertarian Party of Arizona is not a “new” party, so it has very onerous requirements in order to nominate candidates in its own primary.

Here is a story on the lawsuit brought by John Anthony Castro. The case is Castro v Amore, 1:23cv-405. U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, an Obama appointee, said that the First Circuit has already decided the issue in Castro’s New Hampshire case, which Castro lost on standing grounds. Rhode Island and New Hampshire are both in the First Circuit.

Background: In the November 2020 General Election, two Libertarian Party countywide candidates in McHenry County, Illinois were in two-way races and received more than 5% of the vote for County Auditor and County Coroner.

A number of members of the Libertarian Party of Illinois thought that that gave the Libertarian Party Established Party status in McHenry County for four years, as that was the length of the term for both those offices. Established Party status is important because it allows a party’s candidates to get on the ballot for Primary elections, which have much lower signature requirements than getting on the ballot for General Elections as an Independent or as a candidate of a Non-Established Party.

In 2022, there was another General Election for other McHenry County countywide offices. In that election, no Libertarian Party candidate received 5% of the vote for any of those offices.

Thinking that the Libertarian Party still had Established Party status, the LP County Chair learned through a discussion with the McHenry County Clerk that the Clerk thought that the LP was no longer an Established Party. Knowing that there was a difference of opinion, the McHenry County Clerk sued the Libertarian Party of Illinois and me, as its Chair, to bring this matter before the Court to decide whose reading of the law of Illinois was correct.

McHenry County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Costello ruled on November 21, 2023, that the law favored the interpretation of the McHenry County Clerk.

Here is the McHenry County Court Decision.