Arkansas Libertarians submit signatures to get on ’ 16 ballot
Announcing that they’ve collected enough signatures to have candidates on the 2016 ballot, members of the state’s Libertarian Party on Tuesday said it was time to change state laws to make it easier for third parties to gain access to the ballot.
The chairman of the Arkansas Libertarian Party, Michael Pakko, touted his party’s growing success in fielding candidates and getting votes in recent elections as reason to give voters more choices on the ballot.
“This is the third consecutive electoral cycle where we’ve gone through this process,” Pakko said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “Each time we are declared a new political party. I think it’s really time to have the law catch up with reality. We are an ongoing political party.”
Pakko and other party members took 15,709 signatures to the secretary of state’s office to qualify the party for the 2016 ballot.
The threshold for adding a party to the ballot is 10,000 valid signatures, a threshold Pakko’s party has reached in the past two election cycles.
But since Libertarian Party candidates for president or governor did not obtain 3 percent of votes cast in either of the past two elections, Pakko said his party had to qualify all over again.
“That [ law] doesn’t recognize the reality of what a political party is. A political party is not a leader with followers. A political party is a movement. … That’s what we are and that’s what we should be recognized as.”
The former gubernatorial candidate and first elected Libertarian in Arkansas, former DeKalb Township Constable Frank Gilbert, said the state’s laws for ballot access were “byzantine.” The township is in Grant County.
“It’s important to have options. And in Arkansas we don’t have options,” Gilbert said. “There will be Democrats and Republicans who will try to keep us from running, but today is a great day for Libertarians and for Arkansas.”
Gilbert received 15,943 votes during his 2014 gubernatorial run — less than 2 percent of the vote.