On April 24, the Nebraska Senate unanimously approved LB 34. It adds a second method for a party to remain on the ballot. The old law requires a party to poll 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. The bill says a party also remains on the ballot if it has at least 10,000 registered members.
The only three parties on the Nebraska ballot now are the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian Parties. The Libertarian Party has slightly more than 11,000 registrants. Therefore, assuming the bill is signed into law by the Governor, the Libertarian Party won’t need to run any statewide candidates in 2018 if it doesn’t wish to, and would still remain on the ballot.
Bill has now gone into law.
http://ballot-access.org/2017/05/01/nebraska-governor-lets-bill-making-it-easier-for-a-party-to-remain-on-the-ballot-become-law/
Since it is easy for the LP to place candidates on the ballot in Nebraska once they get party status, they ought to run full statewide slates in every election.
The bill will also be beneficial to the Green Party, if it gets on in 2018, which it probably will. The Green Party will be far from having 10,000 registrants. But if the new law causes the Libertarian Party to run few or no candidates for statewide office, then it will be easier for Green nominees for statewide office to get 5%.
I excerpted a story about this bill on my blog last month. While it may look strange to see a Republican legislature doing something to help a Libertarian Party keep ballot access for a change, the Libertarians (including Laura Ebke, the one Libertarian in the state legislature) were able to make an argument appealing to Republican self-interest:
Under the former law, Libertarians were forced to run candidates for state-wide office every cycle, just to stay registered. Those candidates are ‘sacrificial lambs’ with no chance of winning, but there was a good chance that any one of them could take enough votes from the Republican to throw the election to the Democratic candidate.
Under the new law, Libertarians are free to concentrate their efforts on local races where they have a better chance, while Republicans do not have to worry all the time about the Libertarians spoiling state-wide races.