On August 30, a lower state court ruled that even though major parties in Colorado can nominate candidates who haven’t been a member of that party for a year, qualified minor parties do not have the same right. The decision means that the Libertarian Party nominee for Sheriff of Arapahoe County is off the ballot. The party is appealing to the Colorado Supreme Court. The case is Libertarian Party of Colorado v Doty, 06-cv-4768, Arapahoe Dist. Court.

Even the Colorado major parties were once hampered by the one-year rule, but the Colorado Democratic Party won a ruling in 1988 that the one-year rule is unconstitutional, as applied to parties that don’t want it applied to them. In the current case, the judge refused to apply the 1988 ruling to the Libertarian Party because, back in 1991, before the Libertarian Party was a qualified minor party, the State Supreme Court had upheld the one-year disaffiliation law as applied to unqualified parties.

On August 30, the 2nd circuit reaffirmed the U.S. District Court decision in Lopez Torres v New York State Board of Elections, 06-6035. The 2nd circuit agreed with the US District Court that New York ballot access laws, for candidates for Delegate to County Judicial Conventions, are too difficult. They require 500 valid signatures (per Assembly district), of party members, to be collected in 37 days. These petitions are for access to a party primary ballot.

Most ballot access litigation involves minor or new party, or independent candidate, access to the general election ballot. But a handful of states, including especially New York, Massachusetts and Maine, make candidate access to a major party primary ballot also very difficult.

This is the second time the 2nd circuit has invalidated the number of signatures needed for a candidate to get on a New York primary ballot. The first time was in 1996, in Rockefeller v Powers. That case struck down the 5% petition requirement for candidates for delegate to the Republican Party national convention.

The 2nd circuit depended on the historical record, which showed that no one was ever able to get on the primary ballot for Delegate to the County Judicial Convention, except candidates sponsored by the major party organizations.