From Ballot Access News, June 19th:

The East Valley Tribune, which covers the eastern Phoenix suburbs, has this article about HB 2305, an election law bill sitting on the Governor’s desk which makes it very difficult for members of small qualified parties to get on their own party primary ballots. The reporter quotes several Republican legislators as saying that they wrote the bill that way because they are upset that Libertarian candidates last year were on the general election ballot in certain races. Such quotations are likely to be relevant to any lawsuit against the measure, if the Governor signs it into law.

Similar remarks were made earlier this year by Montana legislators, when they passed a top-two measure and arranged for the voters to vote on it in 2014. Montana Republican legislators openly said they are tired of having Libertarians on the ballot.

An excerpt from the linked article, by Howard Fischer and published on eastvalleytribune.com:

Contending one and maybe two congressional races were stolen from them, Republican legislators have approved a measure to finesse election laws to keep out the Libertarians who they say are taking votes from their candidates. The change, tucked into a much larger set of revisions to election laws, would sharply increase the number of signatures that Libertarian and Green Party candidates need just to get on the ballot for their own legislative and congressional primaries. Barry Hess, the Libertarian Party’s former candidate for governor, said in most cases the number of signatures required is far more than the number of people actually registered in most districts. He said unless these minor parties could find independents willing to help them get on the ballot, it would create an “insurmountable obstacle” to any minor party candidate getting nominated, much less being on the general election ballot. But Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, admitted publicly that’s precisely the purpose of the change. And the real goal is creating an easier path for GOP candidates to win. Mesnard, in a late-night bid on the House floor last week on to corral necessary votes for the change, argued that people try to “manipulate the outcome of elections by putting third-party candidates on the ballot.” “All they have to do right now is get a dozen or 15 signatures and on the ballot they go,” Mesnard said, saying he was aiming his comments at the Republicans who control the Legislature. And he claimed that at least one congressional race and maybe two did not go “in the direction I would have liked to have seen them go” — and would have gone, Mesnard contends, had this law been in place last year. In CD 1, Republican Jonathan Paton fell short in his bid to oust incumbent Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick. Paton garnered 113,594 votes against 122,774 for Kirkpatrick. But Libertarian Kim Allen picked up 15,227 votes — votes that Mesnard contended likely would have gone to Paton to help him win. Similarly, in the newly created CD 9, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema bested Republican Vernon Parker by 10,251 votes, with Libertarian Powell Gammill tallying 16,620. Mesnard said upping the signature requirements for minor parties makes these races “much less vulnerable to sham candidates and manipulation.”

To read the full article, please go to the following link:

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_19f25110-d862-11e2-b47a-001a4bcf887a.html