The Libertarian Party of Tennessee sued the state, claiming that a law requiring its candidates to get more than 40,000 signatures in order to be listed on general election ballots is “unduly burdensome.”
A lawsuit filed at the end of last week in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee names Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Elections Coordinator Mark Goins.
Per state law, third-party candidates seeking to be listed on general election ballots as members of their party (rather than being listed as Independents) must capture signatures equal to 2.5 percent of the number of votes cast for all gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election for governor.
For the upcoming election cycle, Libertarians and other third parties must record 43,000 signatures. The Libertarian Party says that garnering that many signatures will be impossible.
Republicans and Democrats, meanwhile, only need 25 signatures to gain ballot access.
The lawsuit demands that the ballot access law be struck down as unconstitutional and that Libertarian candidates be granted ballot access as members of the Libertarian Party on the ballot for the November 5, 2024 elections.
Just one day before the Libertarian Party’s suit, The League of Women Voters – Tennessee (LWVTN) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of a new law that requires Tennessee primary voters to be affiliated with the political party whose primary elections they plan to vote in, as reported by The Tennessee Star.
The law in question is 2023’s HB0828, which took effect on May 17 and “requires the officer of elections at each polling place to post a sign on election day informing voters that it is against the law to vote in a political party’s primary without being a bona fide member of or affiliated with that political party, or to declare allegiance to that party without the intent to affiliate with that party.”
LWVTN says that the term “bona fide” is impossible to define and that it could create confusion for voters.
That law is meant to prevent large numbers of Democrats from banding together to vote for a preferred Republican primary candidate, or vice versa, in Tennessee’s open primaries.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
Photo “People Voting” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Ballot access should be equally applied. If 2.5% is the threshold, then that should be the requirement for ALL potential candidates. Doing otherwise creates an undue burden some parties, and unfair access to others.
This law HB0828 is the most ridiculous waste of time I have ever seen come out of the TN Assembly. I believe this is a deceitful move to push closed primaries in the future. How do they prove that someone crossed over?? Anyone that thinks you cannot cross over in a closed primary has no clue how closed primaries work. I lived most of my life in a closed primary state (PA) and believe me people DO cross over in PA and in other closed primary states. I also lived in NJ and FL (both closed primary states). It is not as easy as in an open primary but people do what they have to do in order to cheat. I prefer open primary because people who identify as something other than an R or D (IE: Libertarian, Independent etc) can vote in the primary. In PA if you are a registered Independent or Libertarian you cannot vote in the primary election. That affects turn out and it affects the final winner who will then go to the general election. In PA we had a large portion of registered Independent voters and they cannot vote in the primary. The Assembly should have no right to say who I can and cannot vote for in the primary election. If you listen to the testimony pertaining to this bill it is obvious what is taking place. They pass crap like this but do NOTHING about election/voter fraud in TN. And YES we do have fraud in TN just like they do in every state. I will vote for whoever I want regardless of this unconstitutional law!!! I am a dues paying member of the Bristol City and Sullivan County Republican party but they do not dictate to me who I have to vote for. I will vote for the candidate I believe is the BEST person for the job and Republican candidates are not always the best person for the job. I have a tendency to vote for Independent candidates in the state general elections (because I find them most of the time to be more constitutional than the R or D candidates) But in the primary I vote for who I believe is the best candidate regardless of party. Yes I also tend to lean Republican but if by some miracle I find a constitutional Democrat candidate to be the best candidate I have the right to vote for that candidate. Again, they should be more worried about election fraud and worry about this silly stuff later. But again I believe this is legislation designed to move us toward closed primaries and when this happens and people still cross over don’t be surprised because it WILL happen.
How does that new law make any sense? In Tennessee, there is no party declaration with voter registration, so how would they know? What about Independents? Do they have no say in the primaries? Sounds to me like the problem isn’t so much cross contamination as it is to for price oarty membership. Soooooo not OK!