NMFP News:
The New Mexico Forward Party has filed a lawsuit July 14 in Federal District Court challenging a ballot access law.
“This lawsuit was filed so that justice can be served, and more choices can be offered to New Mexico voters.
“No other state requires candidates of a qualified party to submit their own petitions to qualify for the general election ballot and we believe it is unconstitutional. Typically, once a party completes the petition process to become qualified and is approved by the Secretary of State, as the New Mexico Forward Party was on May 14, it then has the right to place its nominees on the general election ballot without doing anything else.
“The legislature has had decades to fix discriminatory and unfair ballot access laws. Throughout the last ten years I worked with several legislators on both sides of the aisle in my capacity as President of New Mexico Open Elections to fix this problem and it never moved out of a single committee. Now the Forward Party, which is deeply dedicated to democracy reform measures, will take on leveling the playing field for all candidates. We will be working with state legislators on both sides of the aisle in the upcoming session this January to reduce the signature requirements for all candidates and equalize them.” said Bob Perls, Chairman of the Forward Party of New Mexico.
For state-wide candidates, major party candidates need 2,500 signatures, minor party candidates need 7,100 and independent candidates need 14,200. The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office denied ballot access to the two state wide Forward Party candidates two weeks ago. Both former state representative Bob Perls, candidate for U.S. Senate, and public accountant, Michael Vigil, candidate for State Auditor, were disqualified for insufficient signatures, though they both surpassed the number of signatures required for the Democrat and Republican state-wide candidates.
One of the other issues addressed in the lawsuit is the Secretary of State interpreting current statute as requiring all five Forward Party candidates to have registered with the Party on May 8, even though the party was not approved by the Secretary of State until May 14. We believe it is unreasonable to expect a candidate to change their registration to a party that might not get approved and we will challenge this unreasonable law in court. NM state statute stipulates that all declarations of candidacy and signatures were due June 25 and all Forward Party candidates met that requirement.
The case was filed with the Federal District Court in Albuquerque. We expect a court hearing within the next two weeks. Oliver Hall with the Center For Competitive Democracy is the expert attorney assisting with the case from Washington, DC. Richard Winger is consulting and is the national expert on ballot access. Blair Dunn, a well known local attorney, will be the attorney of record in New Mexico.
New Mexico Forward Party candidate for Public Education Commission District 3, Dennis Dinge, Ph.D., was qualified to run in the November election by the Bernalillo County Clerk. The Public Education Commission is the state chartering entity for charter schools.
In addition, Forward Party candidate Harry Montoya was qualified by the Santa Fe County Clerk to run for Magistrate Court, whereas Fran Kava, Forward candidate for Luna County Magistrate Court, was not qualified to run by the Luna County Clerk.
All Forward Party New Mexico candidates are plaintiffs in the case.
