The Forward Party says it will continue pursuing what it calls “equity in ballot access” following Justice Neil Gorsuch’s denial of an emergency request to place two New Mexico Forward Party candidates on the November ballot.
Forward Party CEO Lindsey Williams Drath issued the statement last Thursday in response to Gorsuch’s denial. The state party had asked the Supreme Court to place U.S. Senate candidate Bob Perls and state auditor candidate Michael Vigil on the ballot after the Tenth Circuit rejected a similar request earlier that week. Gorsuch denied the application that same day without providing a reason.
“Though we are disappointed in the court’s decision to not add Perls and Vigil to the ballot in time for the immediate upcoming election, we remain encouraged and steadfast in our belief that unconstitutional signature requirements in the state of New Mexico will soon fall when the case is heard in full,” Drath said.
Perls and Vigil each needed roughly 14,200 signatures to qualify after the Forward Party achieved minor party status in New Mexico, but neither submitted enough. The state party and several of its members sued over the requirements, arguing in part that the threshold was significantly higher than what Democratic and Republican statewide candidates faced when using petitions to qualify for their respective party primaries.
“Onerous and opaque signature requirements are just one of the many ways the legacy parties lock out potential competition at the polls, reducing candidate options for voters,” Drath continued. “There are examples of questionable ballot access requirements in other states across the country wherein independent candidates are met with mountainous tasks and red tape to be listed on the ballot, while Democrats and Republicans step over relative molehills.”
In the same statement, Drath also discussed the need for the Federal Election Commission to recognize the Forward Party as a national party committee, which she said the party needs for the 2028 election cycle. To receive that status, the party would need to demonstrate sufficient national activity to the commission. The FEC considers several factors in making such a determination, including whether a party has federal candidates on ballots in multiple states and maintains an established and active national organization.
Without such recognition, Drath warned that the Forward Party would remain limited in its ability to coordinate nationally, saying that “the independent movement is severely disadvantaged” and prevented from “full coordination across every surface of the political process.”
With Gorsuch’s denial of the emergency application, the New Mexico Forward Party’s effort to place both candidates on this year’s ballot is effectively over. However, the state party says its underlying lawsuit challenging New Mexico’s ballot access requirements will continue. Following the denial, Perls told Source New Mexico that the case will return to federal district court and is expected to be heard in the coming months.
“After months of litigation and thousands of dollars and man-hours spent, we are back to square one with a court case in U.S. District Court to be heard in the coming months,” Perls told the publication. “But we heard loud and clear from tens of thousands of New Mexicans who talked to our volunteers and our candidates and signed our petitions that they want more and better options at the voting booth going forward.”
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