The Libertarian Party of Arkansas delivered more than 15,000 signatures to Secretary of State Mark Martin's office Monday to once again become a "new political party."
In a news release, the party said this is the fourth consecutive election cycle in which it has registered as a new party. The state Libertarian Party has never met a threshold set in Arkansas law to automatically retain ballot access -- like the state Republican and Democratic parties -- and avoid the petition process.
Arkansas Libertarian Party Chairman Michael Pakko is asking for a change.
"Libertarians are giving the voters a choice in races up and down the ballot. Moreover, people are choosing to cast their votes for Libertarians," he said in a statement. "In total, Libertarian candidates received 356,287 votes in 2016 -- over 7.5 percent of all votes cast in those races."
"Yet the election laws of the State of Arkansas say that's not good enough to remain a state-recognized political party."
The national Libertarian Party says it already has ballot access for the 2018 elections in 37 states. Of Arkansas' surrounding states, it currently lacks access only in Tennessee.
In Arkansas, the party needs its presidential candidate to garner 3 percent of the popular vote to retain ballot access. Pakko said a more reasonable standard would be 2 percent.
In 2016, the party's candidate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, received 2.6 percent of the vote in Arkansas. In 2012, he received 1.5 percent of the vote.
Libertarians won recognition as an official Arkansas political party for the first time after collecting more than 16,000 signatures in 2011.
The secretary of state's office has 30 days to validate the party's signatures to verify that at least 10,000 registered voters have signed the petitions.
After some final paperwork to be filed, the Libertarian Party of Arkansas expects to be declared a "new political party" sometime before the end of July.
Pakko said the party plans to start recruiting candidates at that point.
"If you believe that government should protect the rights of the individual, that people should be able to lead their lives however they see fit with minimal interference from government -- if you believe that freedom and prosperity flourish in a world where markets are allowed to work and the U.S. is at peace with its neighbors and the world -- then please consider joining the Libertarian Party of Arkansas, and running for office as a Libertarian," he said.
In the past, the state Libertarian Party has sued over laws that treat Libertarians differently than Republicans and Democrats.
In 2015, the state Libertarian Party filed a complaint after the Arkansas Legislature moved the Libertarian Party's political practices pledge deadline "from March of the General Election year to November 2 through 9 of the year before the General Election year," and required that "any nominating convention for a new political party must be completed" in early November 2015, a year before the general election.
In order to participate with other states earlier in the presidential nomination process, the Arkansas Legislature decided to shift the 2016 primary elections from May 24 to March 1, and the filing period for Democrats and Republicans for the primaries was Nov. 2-9, 2015, instead of late February-early March 2016.
"The two other political parties are making us select our final candidates just when their selection process is just getting underway -- all so they can have their early primary," Pakko said at the time.
In 2016, U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. said the state's statutes for newly recognized parties effectively required the party to nominate its candidates months before the other parties' primaries, and that such a process was unconstitutional. However, Moody declined to force the state to add Libertarian candidates who missed the deadline to the ballot, saying others within the party had filed in time.
The 3 percent presidential candidate election standard applies to every political party -- including Republicans and Democrats. The dates for the 2018 elections follow their normal schedule.
Metro on 06/13/2017