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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Sanchez, M
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
1/18/08
HB
SHORT TITLE Primary Ballot Access For Certain Candidates
SB 1
ANALYST Ortiz
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY08
FY09
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB190
Relates to HB203
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Attorney General’s Office (AGO)
No Responses Received From
Association of County Clerks
Secretary of State
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 1 provides for a statutory alternative to placing a candidate’s name on the primary
election ballot if a candidate does not receive the “preprimary convention designation."
Currently, a candidate will appear on the primary election ballot only if he or she receives a
preprimary convention designation by receiving at least 20 percent of the votes of the elected
delegates at the preprimary convention. Senate Bill 1 will allow a candidate to collect additional
signatures to total at least four percent of the total vote of the candidate’s party in the state or
congressional district. Senate Bill 1 restores pre-2007 language found in Section 1-8-33(D) of
the Election Code.
pg_0002
Senate Bill 1 – Page
2
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
According to the AGO, there is a pending lawsuit Don Wiviott v. State of New Mexico and
Mary Herrera, Secretary of State
, D-0101-CV-2008-00022 (1
st
Judicial District) that alleges that
the Legislature’s 2007 decision to delete Section 1-8-33(D) unconstitutionally abridges a
candidate’s access to a primary election ballot. If the Legislature adopts Senate Bill 1, then the
lawsuit may be moot.
The Federal Court for the District of Connecticut has ruled that a similar statute that required a
candidate to receive a preprimary convention designation (15%) was a “severe burden" on ballot
access and turned away viable candidates. See
Campbell v. Bysiewicz I
, 213 F.Supp.2d 152 (D.
Conn. 2002)/ Campbell v. Bysiewicz II,
242 F. Supp. 2d 164 (D. Conn. 2003). The Court struck
down the law and the Connecticut Legislature amended the law to allow a candidate, who did not
receive the 15 percent designation, to file petitions signatures (equal to 2 percent of the total
state-wide party registration) to be placed on the ballot. See
C.G.S.A. § 9-400 (amended through
2007). In contrast, the Massachusetts State Supreme Court upheld a two-part system where a
candidate had to: (a) first obtain a certain number of signatures (from registered voters from any
party) and (b) receive 15 percent of the state convention delegate vote. See
Langone v. Secretary
of the Commonwealth
, 446 N.E. 2d. 43 (Mass. 1983). The Court found that the law was not a
“severe burden" on ballot access because it allowed a political party to re-gain some control over
whom it was nominating as its candidate (i.e. since any registered voter could sign the
petitions—conceivably Democrats could sign petitions for a candidate who was trying to run as a
Republican). (Note, New Mexico requires a person signing a candidate petition to be of the
same political party as the candidate. See
NMSA 1978, Section 1-8-31)
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
Duplicates HB190
Relates to HB203
ALTERNATIVES
It may be possible that no candidates receive the 20 percent support and thus the party may not
have an eligible candidate.
EO/nt