The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting article at Ballot Access News written by the widely-respected election expert and advocate for third party/independent ballot access Richard Winger. Take a look at this excerpt:

On April 9, the state of New York submitted this brief in the three ballot access cases filed by various minor parties. The state’s brief asks the U.S. District Court to uphold the new definition of political party, and also the new number of signatures for statewide independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.

The state’s main point is that the old law, requiring 50,000 votes for Governor, was set in 1935, and the state has grown since then and therefore it is only logical that the vote test be increased. However, in 1936, the first year in which the new vote test for Governor was in place, there were 5,557,339 votes cast for Governor. The 50,000-vote test in effect that year was .90%. Therefore, logically, if the state just wanted to update the number of votes cast for Governor, it should have set the new law vote test at 1%, not 2%.

Read article page here. Democracy Chronicles has put together a cornerstone page with our latest on the Libertarian Party that you might explore next. Links to the Libertarian Party website and party platform are included too. Or you can see our overview of all American political parties at Democracy Chronicles Third Party Central.