Today the national voting rights office of the ACLU
sued New Mexico over ballot access, on behalf of the
Libertarian Party.  New Mexico requires one petition
to qualify a new party.  That petition is not the
subject of any complaint or dispute in this or any
other lawsuit.  It requires signatures of one-half of
1% of the last vote cast.

After that petition is checked, the new party
nominates candidates by convention.  The problem is
another law, requiring a separate petition on behalf
of each nominee.  A new party that qualifies in a
mid-term year would need approximately 250,000
signatures if it ran a full slate (the petitions are
1% of the last vote cast, and a full slate would mean
asking people on the street to sign approximately 20
different petitions).  The lawsuit argues that once
the party has completed the party petition, its
nominees should be deemed to have a modicum of
support, since the party has already shown that it has
a modicum of support.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com