Libertarians Off the Ballot in Arizona

[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.