On March 10, the Georgia government filed its brief in Graham v Carr in the Eleventh Circuit, case 22-13396. The issue is the Georgia law that lets individuals give more campaign contributions to Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, than to Libertarian nominees for those offices. The state brief says the Libertarian Party and its nominee for Lieutenant Governor lack standing.
The Minnesota Senate Elections Committee will consider SF 1827 on Tuesday, March 14, at 3 p.m. This is the bill that changes the definition of a qualified party from a group that got 5% for a statewide race at either of the last two elections, to 10%.
Minnesota committees require witnesses to sign up the day before the hearing. One of the witnesses who has signed up is former Governor Jesse Ventura. Presumably he will speak against the bill. The Independence Party of Minnesota was launched in 1994 by running Dean Barkley for U.S. Senate. Barkley polled 5.4% in 1994, so the Independence Party attained qualified status. If the vote test had been 10% back in 1994, the party might never have survived. It elected Ventura in 1998. It had changed its name to the Reform Party in 1996, although it changed it back to Independence in 2000. It also elected a State Senator in 2002.
Last month, Larry Sharpe of New York hosted a forum for four presidential candidates seeking the Libertarian nomination. See it here.
On March 13, the New York Green and Libertarian Parties cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. Libertarian Party of New York v New York State Board of Elections. There is no case number yet. The brief concerns the 2020 ballot access changes in New York. The legislature tripled the statewide petition for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, from 15,000 to 45,000 signatures. The legislature did not expand the petitioning period, which lasts six weeks in April and May.
The legislature also changed the definition of a party from a group that polled 50,000 votes for Governor, to one that polled 2% for the office at the top of the ballot, every two years (president/governor).
UPDATE: Here is the Appendix for the cert petition.
Hearings have been set for the two Minnesota bills that change the definition of a political party, from a group that got 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections, to 10%.
The Senate bill, SF 1827, will be heard Tuesday, March 14, at 3 p.m.
The House bill, HF 2802, will be heard Friday, March 17, at 8:30 a.m.
The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%, so Minnesota is already more difficult than the median state. Minnesota’s existing definition of a qualified party is so tough that Minnesota is one of only six states in which the Libertarian Party has never been a qualified party. The others are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia. Also the Libertarian Party has only been a ballot-qualified party in Connecticut for some offices but not others; and in Georgia and Illinois it has only been a qualified party for statewide offices but not most district offices.
It is ironic that this year, it is the states with difficult ballot access already that are threatening to make it even harder. Besides Minnesota, other examples are New Mexico and Texas.
