State Senate passes bill aimed at limiting ballot access for insurgent Arizona Libertarian Party

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

A new Ballot Access Post, “Arizona Senate Tentatively Passes Bill to Make Primary Ballot Access More Difficult for Libertarians“, by expert Richard Winger has the story:

On March 24, the Arizona Senate tentatively passed HB 2608, which makes it more difficult for Libertarian candidates to get on the Libertarian Party primary ballot.  Current law says a member of a small qualified party that is not a new party needs signatures from one-half of 1% of the party’s members.  The bill says a statewide candidate needs the signatures of one-fourth of 1% of all the registered independents in the state, plus the number of members of that party.  U.S. House and legislative candidates will need one-half of 1% of that base.

The bill has already passed the House.  It has no effect on the Green Party, so far, because the Green Party is considered a new party for both 2016 and 2018, because it petitioned early this year. Thanks to Rick Hasen and Thomas Jones for this news.

The bill is irrational.  The purpose of ballot access petitions is to keep ballots from being too crowded.  But the Libertarian Party ballot in Arizona is never crowded and virtually never has more than one candidate listed.  Assuming the bill becomes law, a Libertarian running for U.S. Senate in 2016 would need 2,987 signatures of registered Libertarians and/or registered independents.  Under current law, only 139 signatures are needed.  UPDATE:  here is another news story.