ND: Libertarian File Lawsuit to Challenge Unconstitutional Election Laws

From the Bismarck Tribune:

The North Dakota Libertarian Party is suing Secretary of State Al Jaeger over election laws it says unfairly target third parties.  Party Chairman Richard Ames and two other Libertarian candidates for the Legislature were barred from advancing to the general election because they didn’t get the required number of votes in the state primary.

The number varies slightly  by district. In Ames’ case, as in most cases, he would have needed about 130 votes to move on to the general election.  Oliver Hall, the attorney for the party and the head of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Competitive Democracy, said North Dakota is the only state in the U.S. where candidates face such a requirement  after they already  got 7,000 signatures to compete in the primary.

“We’re asking the court to strike down the law as unconstitutional,” said Hall.