Challenge posed to North Dakota elections law

May 14, 2011

North Dakota: The Libertarian Party of North Dakota and three of its 2010 legislative candidates have filed suit against the state with the goal of invalidating a law that requires candidates who run in a political party's primary to get a number of votes equal to at least 1 percent of the population of a candidate's legislative district in order to appear on the general election ballot. The Libertarians' attorney, Oliver Hall, argued that the law, as it stands, blocks candidates who represent smaller parties from running in the November election, when their support is likely to be stronger. Hall also argued that it didn't make sense to bar candidates from the general elections ballot who were running unopposed in the primary. Douglas Bahr, an assistant attorney general, responded to the arguments by saying that, "They have the opportunity to go out and say, 'My platform ... is the best. Show up at the primary and vote for me so I can move on to the general election.' How can you say you're a legitimate candidate when you can only garner four votes?"