On April 25, the Tennessee legislature passed SB 3700, which moves the deadline for a newly-qualifying party to submit a petition from April to August. Parties that qualify by the August deadline nominate by convention. The bill has an urgency clause, so it goes into effect as soon as the Governor signs it.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 22-9 on August 16, and passed the House 98-1. The bill does not reduce the number of signatures, which continues to be 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. In 2012 that is 40,039 valid signatures.
Now they need to lower the signature requirement down to 10,000 or less and then Tennessee will finally have a ballot access law for unqualified parties that is at least within the realm of being reasonable.
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