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. Here is a news story about the bill. 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.
If it says tentatively clearly that means it has not officially passed. It probably means it has passed committees and lined up vote commitments to pass. In addition to what has been made official, there’s also what is known to those involved with lobbying and reporting on specific bills’ progress, and it’s legitimate to cover the latter as well as the former in outlets such as BAN and IPR so that people who may want to know about it before the coffin is nailed shut can do so.
Knowing whether or not a bill is a law or not is pretty basic to activism and journalism. If you consider awareness of basic facts “nitpicking,” you’ve already conceded defeat and condemned yourself to perpetual confusion and failure.
I realize, of course, that being overly literal and nitpicking everything to death is just the way things get done around here…
I understand “tentatively passes” to mean not officially voted, but informally known to have overwhelming support for passage.
So then the news is that the Arizona House has passed it. The state senate has not, “tentatively,” or otherwise.
Many Republicans mistakenly believe that people who vote Libertarian will vote if Libertarians aren’t around. We’ve discussed here on IPR why that is not a correct assumption.
There’s no question in my mind that there is an active plan on the part of many Republicans to lessen the impact of the LP. All the CA LP pages are overrun with Republican-lites posting stuff, assuming we all agree with them. They’re sure we’ll jump on the send-all-immigrants-back-let’s-impeach-Obama-and-we’ve-gotta- keep- killing- people -in- other- countries- or- they’ll- kill -us-first bandwagon. This is certainly happening in CA, but our state is unusual in that the Republican Party really doesn’t have much influence. I would even go so far as to say that our weak CA LP has as much influence as they do on public policy.
The GOP seems to be stepping up its efforts to lie, cheat, intimidate, and otherwise engage in scumbaggery to keep Libertarians off of ballots lately, probably because they are scared. Some libertarian positions are becoming popular among the general public, and I think the general public is becoming marginally more familiar with and more comfortable with libertarianism and the Libertarian Party. Republicans tend to be really, really stupid. So, they cling to the belief that LP votes would mostly go to them if the L were not on the ballot. In addition to being really, really stupid, they’re also, generally speaking, pretty much the lowest scum of the earth. So, they do whatever they can to thwart the democratic process and screw with the LP in order to tighten their stranglehold on power.
It’s cool though, since they do it all in the name of God.
The official information page on the above bill HB 2608 is:
http://www.azleg.gov/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=HB2608&Session_ID=114
An unofficial page is:
http://openstates.org/az/bills/52nd-1st-regular/HB2608/
To my eye it looks like it needs to pass the Arizona Senate but don’y rely on my eye, call a professional eye for the best look-see.
Yes. The AZ house passed the bill on a party-line vote. The same will happen in the senate and it will do to Ducey’s desk. I do not have faith the Democrats in the senate can do much nor in Ducey to veto.
I would assume this will past but be litigated in court. Even then, it’s a Hail Mary pass.
So the senate hasn’t actually passed it? Or are you saying the the house “approved” it but hasn’t actually passed it? How do you approve something without passing it? Has the senate passed it or not? Has the house passed it or not?
It’s “tentatively” passed because the house has approved and the senate is just waiting for the official vote. It will pass. The AZ GOP has declared war on libertarians.
It seems like the Republicans have been even worse than the Democrats over the last few years when it comes to fair ballot access.
How do you “tentatively” pass a bill? Either the state senate passed it, or it didn’t.
Thanks to Who Gives a F??? for the comedic commentary. One day, you’ll be up there with Stanhope!
Mr. Sarwark, it passed the house and awaits the senate. By all means, visit away. I’d contact my state reps but they’re all Democrats and will vote against it (but for the wrong reasons). Given that I do not see a difference between Democrats and Republicans, if this passes, I could foresee myself voting for Democrats just to spite the GOP. Then again, I hate Democrats so I would probably just stay home.
These GOP wingnuts actually believe Libertarians would vote for them without the LP option.
If it is a law it is too late. This is still just a bill.
Is this law at a point where my visiting some legislators would help, or is it a done deal?
Agreed. Based on past decisions, I can’t see any circuit disagreeing with the claim that this restricts access in a way that exceeds any legitimate need to meet compelling interests. If a circuit did disagree, that would conflict with federal court rulings in other circuits, creating an opening for a SC appeal.
A strong case can be made that the new law is unconstitutional. The purpose of ballot access petitions is to keep ballots from being too crowded. The Arizona Libertarian Party primary ballot is never crowded, and almost never has more than a single candidate for any particular office. Also the bill does not injure the ability of Libertarians to win primaries by write-in vote.
Fixed muh lynx.
Good. The AZ LP has not taken individual freedom seriously. It should be put out of its misery. This bill looks like it will accomplish that. At least then, the AZ LP won’t be able to pretend they’re in favor of freedom any longer, and the AZ GOP can have the single party state they’ve been fighting for. Single party states sometimes have problems with gun owners deciding they’ve had enough tyranny. They then move to strip the people of their right to bear arms. At that point, one of two things can happen: 1) A whole lot of defenseless people who surrendered their firearms go to the gulag, or 2) Undertakers start working double shifts to accommodate all the politicians and police that keep showing up “unexpectedly.” Knowing “the freedom movement” in Arizona, I’m betting on #1.