AUSTIN -- As Republicans and Democrats prepare for their March primaries, some third-party candidates are struggling to navigate new requirements to get on the November ballot.

A law passed in 2019 lowered the threshold of votes a party must win in any statewide election to reappear on the next ballot. Previously, parties had to receive at least 5% of votes in the previous statewide election to get automatic ballot access, but a law that went into effect Sept. 1 lowered that to 2% in any of the previous five general elections.

But it also added requirements for parties whose candidates are nominated in conventions instead of primaries, making them pay fees or obtain a certain number of signatures to secure their spot in the general election. Previously, only the major party candidates paid filing fees.

Now, two pending lawsuits over the law have left Libertarian and Green party candidates confused about whether they will be on the ballot. On Tuesday, a House panel heard some of their grievances.

“We appreciated the lowered threshold, but then we discovered that we had these fees to pay,” Bill Kelsey, a Libertarian candidate for Congressional District 25 told the Texas House Elections Committee.

Kelsey said he did not pay fees because a Harris County district judge issued an injunction in a suit over the fees days before the candidate filing deadline in December. But another judge reinstated the fees in response to an appeal from the state.

“I have an email from the Secretary of State that says I'm on the ballot,” he said. “Now maybe I'll be removed from the ballot. Maybe I’ll receive a bill for a fee. More confusion.”

The Secretary of State’s office is currently treating convention party candidates the same as Republicans and Democrats, said Keith Ingram, director of the elections division. Unaffiliated candidates, who must submit a petition to run, are not affected by the changes, he said.

But Libertarians say that’s unfair because the collected fees, ranging from $300 to $5,000 depending on the office, are supposed to help pay for primaries run by the state with taxpayer funds for the Republican and Democratic parties.

“They are not used to pay for the Libertarian convention, and we don't want state funding for the Libertarian convention,” said Ted Brown, a Libertarian candidate for the 17th Congressional District. “The convention parties should be treated differently.”

The law allows convention party candidates to submit a petition with a certain amount of signatures instead of the fee, but Brown said “no one was able to take advantage of that because there was very little time and it was unclear who was able to sign the petition form.”

Petition signers for third party and independent candidates must be eligible voters who have not voted in a primary election or participated in another party’s convention, according to the Secretary of State.

A group of Texans is arguing in a federal lawsuit filed last July that the number of signatures required is too difficult to achieve in the alloted time.

The law, authored by Republican Rep. Drew Springer of Muenster, was seen by some as an attempt to help the Green Party siphon votes from Democrats. Before the law’s passage, the Green Party did not meet the threshold to appear on the ballot in 2018 so they would not be eligible in 2020, while Libertarians would.

“The whole purpose … was to mandate that the Green Party had ballot access, and, secondly, try to keep Libertarians off the (ballot) by adding filing fees,” said Glen Maxey, primary director for the Texas Democratic Party.

Alfred Molison, co-chair of the Texas Green Party, told The Dallas Morning News his party is also concerned about the law.

“We as Greens, we want all third parties to have easy access to be able to ask for the votes of the public, ” he said.

Convention parties may still find it hard to win 2% of votes in statewide elections under the increased polarization of the Republican and Democratic parties, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston.

“As polarization increases in Texas, minority parties are going to have more trouble getting attention in general elections, which is going to strangle their ability to communicate,” he said. “In turn, that’s going to limit their ability to get more votes.”