Justice Neil Gorsuch has denied an emergency request from the New Mexico Forward Party to place two of its statewide nominees on the November ballot, rejecting the party’s latest attempt to do so after the Tenth Circuit denied a similar request earlier this week.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court docket, Gorsuch denied the application on Thursday, two days after the state party asked the Supreme Court to compel Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to place U.S. Senate candidate Bob Perls and state auditor candidate Michael Vigil on the general election ballot. The docket does not give a reason for the denial.
Toulouse Oliver’s office filed a response opposing the request earlier that same day, with her attorneys arguing that the deadline for adding candidates had effectively passed and that election officials were already well into preparations for the November election. They also argued that the Forward Party was unlikely to succeed in its challenge to the state’s ballot access requirements.
The Forward Party turned to the Supreme Court after the Tenth Circuit denied a similar emergency request earlier in the week. Perls and Vigil each needed roughly 14,200 signatures to qualify for the ballot after the party achieved minor party status in New Mexico, far more than their major party counterparts needed if using petitions; however, neither submitted enough.
The party has challenged those requirements in federal court, arguing that they impose an unconstitutional burden on minor party candidates. Its underlying appeal remains before the Tenth Circuit.
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