Summary
Last week, Superior Court Judge Leon Stanback Jr. told the small, but packed Wake County courtroom that "personally I think 5,000 or 10,000 signatures should be enough, but the legislature hasn't seen that it's sufficient." He chose not to rule on the constitutionality of the state ballot access law, and instead sent the case to trial. A date hasn't been set, but the lawsuit is expected to be heard in March.
A year ago, the state Green and Libertarian parties sued the State Board of Elections, contending that North Carolina's ballot access laws are unconstitutional. North Carolina has among the most restrictive regulations in the country; it requires third parties to collect 70,000 petition-signatures of currently registered voters, a number equivalent to 2 percent of the voter turnout in the last gubernatorial election. However, canvassers collect at least 100,000 signatures because inevitably local boards of election challenge the validity of some signatures and toss them out.[Alec Peters] pointed out that several states have set 2 percent to 5 percent signature thresholds. "That requirement is constitutional," Peters said, citing rulings in other court cases. "Whether a different requirement may be set is a matter of policy. The courts can't get into the business of deciding the cut off."See the full content of this document
Extract
Crashing the Party
Attention Republicans and Democrats: You're still in power. After a year of litigation, the Green and Libertarian parties are still mired in a lawsuit over the number of signatures required for third partie...
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