In a 2-1 decision, the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling against the Libertarian and Green parties, who challenged North Carolina’s rules for allowing third parties to gain access to the state’s election ballot.
Judge Ann Marie Calabria dissented from the majority opinion, writing:
North Carolina?s 2% statewide requirements for both ballot access and ballot retention place too onerous a burden on the fundamental rights of members of third parties under the State Constitution. The State, by permitting ballot access under far less burdensome requirements for unaffiliated candidates, has proven that it can accomplish its compelling interest in ballot regulation in a less restrictive fashion. It is ultimately the role of the Legislature, rather than this Court, to determine a precise method of ballot access and/or retention that is permissible under the State Constitution. … However, the ballot access statutes must, at the very least, allow both political parties and unaffiliated candidates equal access to the ballot.
