On September 10, the Attorney General of New Mexico, Raul Torrez, a Democrat, filed an amicus curiae in the Tenth Circuit in New Mexico Forward Party v Toulouse Oliver, 26-2145. The surprise is that he filed it on the side of the Forward Party, and argues that New Mexico’s ballot access laws for new and minor parties are so difficult that they are unconstitutional. Here is his brief.

I have been following constitutional ballot access cases for sixty years and I don’t believe that the Attorney General of any state has ever taken that position in any previous constitutional ballot access case. There have been many instances when a state consented that one of its ballot access laws was unconstitutional, but this is a contested case.

This year, West Virginia has 19 minor party candidates for the legislature on the ballot. That is the most since at least 1936, and possibly earlier. The number of minor party legislative nominees in 1936 is unknown. The only minor parties on the ballot in 1936 were Socialist and Prohibition. The West Virginia ballot access laws became extremely difficult in 1937, and again in 1941. They were eased in 2009, after years of struggle.

This year there are nine Constitution Party legislative nominees, five Libertarians, and five Greens. The West Virginia Green Party has the name “Mountain Party.”

The previous highest number of legislative minor party nominees was in 1998, when there were ten Libertarians.

The Democratic nominee for Colorado State House of Representatives, 58th district, Alec Lindman, is not on the ballot because the local Democratic Party failed to file paperwork. See this story. As a result, the incumbent Republican is the only name on the November ballot.