Ballot Access Reform on Front Burner

Ballot Access Reform on the Front Burner

by Candi Copas

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina's ballot access reform bill has been completed and approved by sub-committee and committee. The bill reference number is 97-RRZ-004 for those of you wanting to track it. [editor's note: This bill was introduced on the floor of the House as HB79. It is not part of any other election reform bill] The bill is sponsored by Lanier Cansler in the House and Wib Gulley in the Senate.

The bill makes four substantial changes. First, it gives the County Board of Elections an extra week to verify petition signatures, and permits the State Board of Elections to extend this deadline if needed. The counties currently have two weeks to complete the verification process. They will have three if this passes.

Second, the petition deadline for qualifying as a new political party for ballot placement will be changed from June 1st to the second Thursday in July. This gives us roughly six more weeks to complete the petitioning process. This was done in order to be in compliance with the federal court ruling in Anderson v. Celebreeze, claiming that any deadline earlier than July 1st places an unconstitutional burden on the petitioning party.

Third, the wording of the petition changes to omit the phrase, "intend to organize," so instead of appearing to the voters that they are promising to join and support the Libertarian Party, the new wording of the petition states more accurately that it asks them to affirm their "desire that a new political party be organized." This would correct one of the points we sued and lost over in the McLaughlin case.

Fourth, and best of all, GS 163-97.1 will be removed. The replacement text will read: "Any voter registered with a political party shall be allowed to retain that affliliation even if the party loses its status as a political party under the provision of GS 163-97 [failing the 10% threshhold]. Unless the voter indicates an intention otherwise, the county Board of Elections shall carry that voter on its registration lists as a member of the expired party." In short, disaffliliation of registered voters will no longer occur.

While this legislation fails to address the issue of the 10% threshhold to retain official party status, as well as the 2% petition requirement, this is probably the best we could have hoped for as a starting point. The current path of this legislation is fairly favorable to us. The bill will be introduced to the House first. If the bill fails, rather than dying immediately, it goes to the Judiciary Committee for re-write. If it passes as is, it still goes to the Judiciary Committee for amendments.

At that point, we hope to attach amendments to change the 10% retention figure to 5%; change the petition requirement from 2% to a flat 10,000 or 25,000 signatures; and allow candidates to run with their party affliliation if they meet requirements for ballot qualification as an Independent. What this means is that if the LP loses statewide party status, a candidate could meet the qualifications for running as an Independent, and with a letter from the state chair of the party, the cadidate would be listed as a Libertarian on the ballot.

These are only proposed amendments at the moment. They will occur in the Judiciary Committee (which has a Democratic majority) after leaving the House, and before hitting the Senate.

It is almost certain that the Election Law Study Committee will be re-assigned. Committee chairs have requested that the ballot access sub-committee be retained for further evaluation of current election law. This means the committee will continue through the next session, but probably with some change in membership.

So call your state representatives, and keep your fingers crossed.

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