By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The Green Party of Arkansas says its strong finish in several statewide races last week shows it deserves guaranteed ballot access in the next general election, though it failed to clear the hurdle set by state law.
Parties can get on Arkansas’ ballot either by collecting 10,000 signatures of registered voters or by receiving at least 3 percent of the vote in the most recent gubernatorial or presidential race. In some statewide races last week the Green Party’s candidates received more than a fourth of the vote, but its gubernatorial candidate, Jim Lendall, only captured 2 percent.
That means the party has to go to the trouble and expense of collecting signatures to get on the 2012 ballot, as it did to get on the 2010 ballot.
The state Green Party sued Secretary of State Charlie Daniels last year, after the party’s 2008 U.S. Senate candidate captured more than 20 percent of the vote but the party was denied automatic ballot access because its presidential nominee received less than 3 percent. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in July, but the party is working on an appeal.
The Green Party says the state has set the bar unreasonably high for third parties in order to maintain the status quo.
“Almost all states say any statewide election where the candidate can get 3 percent or more gains ballot access,” state Green Party spokesman Mark Jenkins said today.
The attorney general’s office, which is representing Daniels in the lawsuit, has argued that the law provides “a reasonable restriction” on ballot access. Jenkins called that argument “ridiculous.”
“The state has always argued that it’s to avoid a crowded and confusing ballot, which seems ridiculous to me since there is no limit on the number of candidates who can run in a primary election,” he said.
Jenkins said as many as eight candidates have run in some primaries, including this year’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, and “no one complained.”
Richard Carroll of North Little Rock, who was elected to the state House in 2008 as a Green Party candidate but ran unsuccessfully for re-election this year as a Democrat, filed a bill in 2009 that would have allowed a party to gain automatic ballot access if it won 3 percent of the vote in any statewide race in either of the past two election cycles. The state Democratic Party opposed the bill, which died in committee.
“Obviously there’s got to be some objective standard,” state Democratic Party Chairman Todd Turner said today. “There’s got to be some way to define what’s a party.”
Turner noted that the law has not stopped the Green Party from getting on the ballot and did not stop Carroll from winning a seat in the Legislature.
Jenkins acknowledged that most states have restrictions on ballot access, but he said Arkansas is “at the bottom” in the access it provides to third parties.
The Green Party won one race in Arkansas last week — Joy Ballard was elected Saline County collector — but Jenkins said the party achieved its best overall performance to date.
According to unofficial election returns, Bobby Tullis received 32 percent of the vote for state treasurer, Mary Hughes-Willis received 29 percent of the vote for state auditor and Rebekah Kennedy received 27 percent of the vote for attorney general.
Those Green Party candidates competed in races that no Republican entered; the party generally fared worse in three-way races.
Jenkins said people are already contacting the party, which he called “the only liberal choice in this state,” to express interest in running in 2012.
“When you take into account that even the Republican Party has about a 130-year head start on us, we’re encouraged,” he said.
