Libertarians Off the Ballot in Arizona

[Bengalzona]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/politicalinsider/2016/07/01/arizona-libertarian-knocked-off-united-states-senate-ballot/86612330/

Based upon an accusation by the GOP majority that Libertarians caused 1 or 2 GOP lawmakers to lose their seats in the last election, the AZ Supreme Court upheld a law that conditions Libertarian candidates to produce 20 times as many signatures in order to be included on ballots.

[*Nately120*]

Our democracy is a sham, but as long as we get 2 parties to places like North Korea's 1 we will believe we have it all figured out.

[Belsnickel]

Wow. This is just...wow.

[Rotobeast]

Aaaaaannnnnd it's shit like this that caused me to become an activist.
If this keeps up, the N.A.P. (Non-Aggression Principle) is going to go out the window and armed revolt will become a top option.
We are about to lose our country and the majority of citizens are sitting on their hands.
Stand the F@$# up !

[Bengalzona]

"...there are 25,340 registered Libertarians in Arizona, the Secretary of State's Office website shows. That compares with 1.2 million Republicans and 990,000 Democrats."

Clearly a real 'threat', eh

[Rotobeast]

We're just going to have to mobilize our Texas friends to, "express our concern".

[Nebuchadnezzar]

A few Questions about this thing, the article says Republicans required signatures was lowered, Democrats and Libertarians required signatures were raised. How was this done...is it based off of registered party members, is it a percentage, how is the number of signatures needed calculated?

The article doesn't say, it just says Libertarian number of signatures was raise big time.

Also, if there are 25k plus registered Libertarians, why is it so hard to get 3024 signatures?

I'm just confused, 3k signatures shouldn't be that hard to acquire if there are that many registered Libertarians. The party has their names and addresses, send out the form for the signatures, or aren't you allowed to do that?

[JustWinBaby]

If Libertarians become pro immigration, the 20X signatures should be easy pickings :)

[Bengalzona]

(07-14-2017, 05:53 AM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: A few Questions about this thing, the article says Republicans required signatures was lowered, Democrats and Libertarians required signatures were raised. How was this done...is it based off of registered party members, is it a percentage, how is the number of signatures needed calculated?

The article doesn't say, it just says Libertarian number of signatures was raise big time.

I do not know.

The Secretary of State's website doesn't give the specifics for Senate candidates (they were probably waiting until the ruling occurred to post that, understandably). 

They did have this on how signature requirements are derived for persons running to be House Representatives:

Quote:The minimum number of signatures required is found by calculating 1/2 of 1% of the qualified signers in that district as of March 1, 2016. The maximum number of signatures required is found by calculating 10% of the total qualified signers in that district as of March 1, 2016 (A.R.S. § 16-322(link is external)).

The Green Party is considered a new party in the state of Arizona through the 2018 election cycle. The minimum number of signatures required from a new party is calculated by totaling 1/10 of 1% of the total votes cast for the winning candidate for governor or president at the last general election within the district. (A.R.S. § 16-322(link is external)).

Quote:Also, if there are 25k plus registered Libertarians, why is it so hard to get 3024 signatures?


I'm just confused, 3k signatures shouldn't be that hard to acquire if there are that many registered Libertarians. The party has their names and addresses, send out the form for the signatures, or aren't you allowed to do that?

3,000 signature is 12% of the registered Libertarians. The 3000 doesn't seem like a lot, right. And it wouldn't be if a significant number of Registered Libertarians were willing to register one single candidate they all agree upon. 

But consider this. If the Libertarian Party grows (which I'm sure they intend to), that number grows substantially and can become a significant burden. If this percentage were applied to the GOP, a single GOP candidate would need to collect approximately 144,000 signatures just to register. A single Democratic candidate would need to muster 119,000. I don't have the current requirements, but I am positive that they are only a fraction of those numbers. They Big Two parties generally each have multiple individuals who compete to get their names on the ballot.

Moreover, what makes this a concern is that fact that the party in power (the GOP runs the State House, the State Senate, the Governors office and most of the State Supreme Court are GOP selections) can arbitrarily just decide to penalize another party in order to suffocate any opposition in an effort to retain power.  

[Bengalzona]

(07-14-2017, 06:38 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: If Libertarians become pro immigration, the 20X signatures should be easy pickings  :)

Why?

[JustWinBaby]

(07-14-2017, 07:23 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Why?

Illegal voters

[JustWinBaby]

(07-14-2017, 07:21 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: 3,000 signature is 12% of the registered Libertarians. The 3000 doesn't seem like a lot, right. 

I'm guessing it's 0.5% of @ 4M registered voters...which would be approx. 20k signatures.
Even if that is 80% of registered Libertarians, that shouldn't be a problem (though far worse than any alleged racial disenfranchisement anywhere).

[BmorePat87]

In Arizona, it's 0.25% of eligible voters (your party plus independents). So previously, the Libertarians just had to get 0.5% of their party (which was about 125 signatures from a pool of about 25,000). Now they need to get 0.25% of their party and independents (roughly 3,000 signatures from a pool of about 1,200,000).

At the time, there were more independents than Democrats, so the Democrats requirements went up. There are more Republicans than independents, so their number went down.

These are the new updated numbers:
https://www.azsos.gov/elections/voter-registration-historical-election-data


All that said, a state party should be able to gather 3,000 signatures. That's still quite low, especially compared to similarly populated Maryland where you need like 30,000. We had a Libertarian run for governor last time and an independent run for senator 4 years ago.

[Au165]

Am I missing something? This is over a year old.

[Rotobeast]

We need 50k, in Ohio.

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

[BmorePat87]

(07-14-2017, 09:17 AM)Au165 Wrote: Am I missing something? This is over a year old.

It was challenged in federal courts a few days ago. That story was when Arizona first upheld it last year. 

[Au165]

(07-14-2017, 12:35 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: It was challenged in federal courts a few days ago. That story was when Arizona first upheld it last year. 

I clicked on the OP link posted and the article was from July 1st 2016. That is why I was confused, didn't know the recent elements.

[*michaelsean*]

(07-14-2017, 12:37 PM)Au165 Wrote: I clicked on the OP link posted and the article was from July 1st 2016. That is why I was confused, didn't know the recent elements.

Zona's old and he still reads the newspaper.  Cuts the morning paper in half so it still feels like he's getting an evening paper as well.   He has a bit of a backlog.  

[Bengalzona]

(07-14-2017, 01:58 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Zona's old and he still reads the newspaper.  Cuts the morning paper in half so it still feels like he's getting an evening paper as well.   He has a bit of a backlog.  

And you kids better stay off my damn lawn!!! 

[*michaelsean*]

(07-14-2017, 02:51 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: And you kids better stay off my damn lawn!!! 

Since when did they start letting kids on Del Webb Properties?