

Doug Ducey

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey today signed bill HB 2608, which makes it much harder for Libertarian candidates to get on the primary ballot.

All party candidates much participate in primary elections in Arizona, but before today a candidate only needed signatures equal to 1/2 of 1% of the party’s registered voters in the district of the office for the office in which they were running.

Now, all statewide candidates must collect signatures equal to 1/4 of 1% of the party’s registered voters and registered Independents. Non-statewide candidates must collect 1/2 of 1% of the party’s registered voters plus registered Independents.

Since Independents represent almost 36% of the registered voters in the state, the amount of signatures necessary to get on the ballot will rise dramatically.

For example, before the new law was signed today, a 2016 statewide candidate would have need 139 signatures to get on the primary ballot. Now, such a candidate will need 2,987 signatures.

Thanks to Richard Winger, editor and publisher of Ballot Access News, for this story.