Today I attended a hearing on summary judgment for a ballot access lawsuit that’s been going on in the State of North Carolina. Plaintiffs in this lawsuit include the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

From an email I sent earlier today to update folks on what went on and to describe the plight of gaining ballot access for alternative political parties in North Carolina:

The judge refused to issue a summary judgment in support of either side. He did say, though, that he fully agreed that political parties should have much lower ballot access requirements. We’ll see him again in a few weeks for the actual trial I think.

Currently for the Libertarian Party to get on the ballot, a number of signatures must be gathered every four year election cycle in order to retain ballot access. This number is equal to 2% of the vote cast for governor or president. Based on the last election, this works out to approximately 70,000 signatures. To make matters worse, not all signatures received are able to be validated by each county’s Board of Elections. Figuring in a standard rejection rate means that 100,000 signatures actually need to be collected. This can be done by volunteers, but paid petitioners are sometimes needed. Paying petitioners costs the Libertarian Party $100,000 to $150,000 per ballot access drive. Then, the party needs to spend thousands of dollars to put individual candidates on ballots. Because of this and restrictive districting rules designed by the legislature, most races for legislature seats in North Carolina are unopposed.

All in all, it was great to see the Greens again. It’s good to know that despite our differences we can civilly work together on something like this. Having Libertarians and Greens on the ballot together will be a huge step to fixing the problems with North Carolina.

Coverage and commentary on this event was also made on Ballot Access News and Third Party Watch. And to think that I was there to witness history in an hour-and-a-half long hearing that is guaranteed to lead to many more hearings in the future.

From the people who brought us electile dysfunction back in 2000 and introduced mainstream America to hanging Chad and his boyfriend (errr, girlfriend?), pregnant Chad, congratulations for selecting John McCain as the winner of tonight’s Florida Republican primary. To remind you of what you chose, here’s a classic from last week’s debate. Didn’t John McCain also win South Carolina?

…sucks.

I didn’t watch it, but I caught the highlights. If I wasn’t in class and on a conference call to discuss stopping the REAL ID Act from being implemented in North Carolina, I would have watched it and blogged about it in more depth. But the Libertarian Party has done all the work for me. Check out their reaction to the 2008 State of the Union. I completely agree with everything the LP is saying.

And to think that the Libertarian Party wouldn’t have to level any of these criticisms if George W. Bush was really a conservative.