On March 7, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee signed HB 1419, which requires statewide initiatives to include a large number of signatures from each of at least fifty counties. Arkansas has seventy-five counties.

Generally, courts have struck down county distribution requirements for all types of statewide petitions. But on August 31, 2022, the Eighth Circuit upheld Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. The vote was 2-1. The losing side did not ask for U.S. Supreme Court review, so now it is too late to overturn the Nebraska decision, Eggers v Evnen. Both Nebraska and Arkansas are in the Eighth Circuit. Thanks to Paul Jacob for the news about HB 1419.

The Hill has this article by Benjamin Chavis, Jr., a leader of No Labels. Chavis defends the idea that No Labels might run a presidential nominee in 2024. Thanks to Eric Wong for the link.

On March 14, the New Mexico House passed SB 180, so the bill now goes to the Governor. Among many other provisions, it doubles the number of signatures needed for the nominees of qualified minor parties, except for minor party presidential nominees. The vote was party-line, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.”

New Mexico is the only state that requires the nominees of a qualified party to submit a petition to be on the November ballot. The law is discriminatory. It does not apply to parties that nominate by primary, but it does apply to parties that nominate by convention. It would be absurd to expect the winner of a primary to then file a petition to be on the general election ballot. But when someone has won a convention nomination from a qualified party, the need for a petition at that point is equally senseless.

The existing law, with nominee petitions of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, was challenged in federal court in 2006 by the ACLU. The Libertarian Party, the plaintiff, made some paperwork errors and all the evidence was barred, so the judge upheld the law without holding a trial. Now that the petition has been doubled, to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, a new lawsuit is likely, this time probably by the Green Party.

The Libertarian Party nominates by primary so it is not affected by the new law. However, the ballot-qualified Libertarian Party in New Mexico is not affiliated any longer with the national Libertarian Party, so Libertarians in New Mexico who are aligned with the national party have been thinking of qualifying a new party. If they do, that new party (whatever its name) will be a minor party, and will be affected by the new law.

The only other state that ever required the nominees of a qualified party to submit nominee petitions was Maryland, but in 2003 the Maryland highest state court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that it is unconstitutional to require the nominees of a qualified party to submit petitions. They can be deemed to have public support because a qualified party nominated them.

The New Mexico legislators appear to have no understanding of this part of the bill. The sponsor of the bill told both committees that heard her bill that the bill was not making any changes to minor party ballot access rules, and she said the witnesses who testified against the bill were mistaken, although she did not say why.