For Immediate Release

Legislature Again Seeks to Disenfranchise Third Party Voters

Golden Valley, MN (May 15, 2023) — Once again, minor parties are the subject of debate in the
Statehouse. Responding to “spoiler” candidates who have infiltrated the ballot slots of the Legal
Marijuana Now Party and Grassroots—Legalize Cannabis Party – both newly major parties with
automatic access to statewide electoral ballots – the House and Senate have considered several
methods of varying acceptability this legislative session. Now, an amendment to the omnibus state
finance bill, HF 1830, has been added in conference committee that would ensure Minnesotans who
are not represented by the two big parties have no alternatives to vote for.
Minnesota’s ballot access requirements are already among the most onerous in the country. To appear
on the ballot, minor parties must collect thousands of signatures with personal information during a
narrow window in the middle of the summer, a challenging task in the urban area, daunting in rural
Minnesota.
Currently, to gain major party status and automatic ballot access, parties must receive five percent (5%)
of the statewide vote in an election, something few candidates without a D or R next to their names
have achieved. The bill emerging from conference committee would raise that threshold from 5% to
8%. Additionally, the new bill requires parties to hold conventions in 45 legislative districts or counties.
By comparison, the national median vote threshold for recognized party status with ballot access is two
percent (2%), and only three states have a vote threshold requirement greater than five percent (5%).
No state has requirements as arduous as those proposed by this bill.
According to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, the Libertarian Party has gained automatic ballot
access in 43 states in its half century of existence. In Minnesota, it has never gained major party status,
the unusual requisite for automatic ballot access in this state. The legislature should not fix the problem
of spoiler candidates by making it essentially impossible for smaller political parties to appear on the
ballot.
“I understand the problem the bill is trying to solve,” Winger said. According to Winger, to “thwart
insincere candidates,” the most equitable and fair solution is to require minor parties to nominate their
candidates in convention to certify their nominations, as 17 other states already do. According to
Winger, minor party conventions parallel major party primary elections in ensuring only party-approved
candidates carry the party’s banner. This solution prevents candidates from running on the ballot line of
a party they have never been involved with, and it allows minor parties to have their say in statewide
politics.
According to LPMN Chair Marianne Stebbins, "The Libertarian Party of Minnesota emphatically
opposes Amendment A92. We call on the Minnesota Legislature to fix the problem of spoilers by
offering minor party ballot access, requiring nomination by convention for minor parties, and without
disenfranchising the thousands of Minnesotans who vote third party and the nearly half who identify as
independent and who are not represented by the current duopoly in St. Paul."
Bill for reference:
https://www.senate.mn/conference_committee/2023-2024/1532_Conference_Committee_on_H.F._183
0/A92%20Amendment%20-%20Misc%20Elections%20Items.pdf
Contacts:
James Jenneman, Communications Director, james.jenneman@lpmn.org, 214-620-9988
Marianne Stebbins, Chair, 952-239-1007
About:
The Libertarian Party of Minnesota, the state’s third-largest political party, advocates peace, prosperity,
and freedom through a reduction in the size and scope of government, elimination of confiscatory taxes
and wasteful spending, and abolition of laws that create crime where no victim is harmed. For more
information and to join the fight for liberty, go to https://www.lpmn.org.

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