On June 30,
a U.S. district court judge lowered the signature requirement for statewide candidates of non-establishment parties to 5,000 signatures. The order takes effect for this year’s elections.
The judge also imposed new county distribution requirements that apply to all nonfederal statewide campaigns. Candidates for attorney general, auditor, and treasurer must collect at least 250 signatures from each of ten counties.
The judge’ s ruling came just one month before the deadline for petitioning, after the LP had collected many more signatures than needed to satisfy the new, lower signature requirement. But because there was no guarantee of how the court would rule, the LP was forced to petition vigorously until the judge issued an order.
