On March 6, the New Mexico House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs passed SB 180. It is an omnibus election law bill that doubles the number of signatures for the non-presidential nominees of qualified minor parties, from 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 2%. That will be approximately 15,000 signatures in 2024.
Now the bill goes to the House.
The New York Libertarian and Green Parties are in the process of preparing a cert petition in their ballot access case. COFOE has contributed $1,500 toward the printing costs. COFOE gets all its income from readers of Ballot Access News, print edition. Your support is greatly appreciated.
The Hawaii Elections office has removed the Constitution Party from qualified status. It didn’t run any candidates in 2022. The Hawaii law on how a party remains on the ballot is very strange. Once it has been on the ballot in three elections in a row, then it is automatically on the ballot for the next five elections. The Constitution Party was on the ballot by petition in 2016, 2018, and 2020, so by that means it earned its “free” period (2022-2030). During the three elections in which it petitioned, it was not required to have candidates, and it did not have any in 2018, but that wasn’t held against it.
But, it turns out, once the party is in its “free” period, it must then run at least one candidate in every election, or the qualification is cancelled. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
The New Mexico House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs Committee will hear SB 180a on Monday, March 6. This is the bill that doubles the number of signatures for the non-presidential nominees of qualified minor parties, from 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 2%. The bill has already passed the Senate. The Green Party is working to try to delete that provision from the bill. The bill is an omnibus election law bill with many unrelated election law provisions.
New Mexico is the only state that requires the nominees of qualified parties to submit a petition in order to be on the general election ballot.
According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, the No Labels Party now has 14,502 valid signatures on its petition for party status in 2024. The law requires 13,757. However, in North Carolina, new parties are not certified for the ballot, even if they have enough valid signatures, until the State Board of Elections meets and votes on the petition validity.
