ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, joined by
the ACLU Voting Rights Project, today challenged a state law that forces new
political parties to work much harder than existing parties to put their
candidates on general election ballots.
"No other state in
the country has such onerous and lop-sided requirements for new parties to
participate in the electoral process," said Peter Simonson, Executive Director
of the ACLU of New Mexico. "The law serves no real purpose except to
protect the existing parties from competition and limit the options that New
Mexico voters have for electing candidates with diverse political
perspectives."
The law first requires new parties to gather
signatures to petition for formal party status, and then requires new party
nominees to gather signatures on a second petition to put their names on the
ballot. No such requirement exists for Republican and Democrat nominees.
The ACLU’s lawsuit states that the New Mexico law violates rights
of political association by forcing new parties to seek signatures from
non-party members in order to appear on the ballot. The ACLU brought the
lawsuit on behalf of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and several individual
aspirants to political office who say the law will prevent them from
running as Libertarians in the November 2006 elections.
"This law
effectively gives people who are not members of our party the ability to veto
our nominees,” Jay Vandersloot, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico,
said. “Why should Libertarian nominees have to convince Democrats
and Republicans to sign petitions allowing them to run for office? Party
status alone should suffice for them to get on the ballot. What's good
enough for majority parties should be good enough for all others. This lawsuit
aims to protect the voting rights not just of Libertarians, but also of any
other new party, including Green and Constitutionalist Party
candidates."
The lawsuit was filed in federal court by both the
ACLU of New Mexico and the national ACLU Voting Rights Project. If
successful, the case could allow Libertarian nominees to run for office this
November.