A federal judge in Santa Fe is preparing to decide if New Mexico’s two-tiered system for qualifying candidates in elections protects the two-party system by placing unreasonable requirements on smaller parties looking to qualify candidates for the ballot. U.S. District Judge Margaret Strickland is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on Friday.
This story was originally published at New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit news service covering politics and policy in the Land of Enchantment. Learn more and support our work at nmreports.org
The case was filed by the new New Mexico Forward Party which had to submit petitions equal to 1/2-percent of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election to achieve official “minor party” status, which the Forward Party successfully did in May. But state law also requires the party’s individual candidates to submit separate petitions. For statewide office, candidates from minor parties with fewer than 7,100 members must gather 14,200 signatures—nearly six times the signature requirements imposed on major-party candidates, who also receive twice as long to circulate their petitions, the lawsuit says. The Forward Party is aligned with Andrew Yang, a former independent presidential candidate seeking an alternative to the two-party political system.
New Mexico is the last state in the country to have this two-tiered signature petition requirement, the party says. They sued New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as the primary defendant who says in her response that she is simply enforcing the law as passed by the legislature. Forward Party officials argue the double-petitioning requirement serves no legitimate state interest. Plaintiffs point out that New Mexico has not faced ballot overcrowding in decades, with a majority of state legislative races frequently featuring only one unopposed candidate on the ballot. With the state statutory deadline to print general election ballots looming on Sept. 18, the federal court’s upcoming decision will determine whether the Forward Party’s statewide nominees can appear before voters this fall.
The primary plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Bob Perls, a former state representative running for U.S. Senate, and Michael Vigil, a former Albuquerque Public Schools chief financial officer running for State Auditor. Both candidates collected more than 2,500 signatures—exceeding the thresholds required for Democratic or Republican candidates—but were disqualified after failing to reach the higher signature mark for minor parties. While three of NMFP’s local candidates successfully qualified or were reinstated, the party was unable to place any statewide candidates on the ballot.