Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, had tossed all 26 Independence Party candidates off the ballots, claiming the recent primary election had disqualified the party because it failed to achieve 10% of the vote, which is required to achieve major party status. The IP party
took their case to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which ruled today the IP party must be back on the ballot.
Minnesota law states that a party must obtain 10% of the vote in a race to achieve major party status, which then allows the party automatic access to the ballot for the next general election. This time around, Kiffmeyer declared the recent primary election a general election and used the low turnout and uncontested races as an excuse to remove all 26 IP candidates from the ballot for the November 2 election.
The Independence Party is the party of Jesse Ventura and former Congressman Tim Penny, and positions itself as fiscally responsible and socially liberal. They don't insist on endless tax cuts, but on smart government. Today's ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court restores the Independence Party to the ballot.
In this year's low-turnout primary, none of the IP candidates met the benchmark, forcing all of them off the Nov. 2 ballot. In short, no IP candidate got 10 percent of the votes the average IP candidate got in their area in the last election - 2002. That year, the party's candidate for governor got 16 percent of the vote, raising the bar for primary candidates this year.
Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, and [State Attorney General] Hatch, a DFLer, earlier concluded that the law did apply and could be enforced. No one could recall it being used before, even though the IP contended it could have come into play in 2000 against them.
Joan Growe, Minnesota's previous Secretary of State and a DFLer, had been interpreting election law in the state in the most generous way possible to allow maximum ballot access.
Aside from the significant ruling, Mike Hatch's siding with the Supreme Court's decision was surprising considering his previous ruling:
"Based on written submissions and the arguments of the parties, we conclude that (the law) cannot constitutionally be applied to deprive Independence Party candidates a place on the general election ballot," the justices wrote in a two-page order.
Both Independence Party lawyer Mike Padden and Attorney General Mike Hatch asked them to take that step.
Padden's request was predictable, Hatch's was not. Just last week he said he didn't see a compelling reason for the obscure law but he had no plans to explicitly ask it be overturned on constitutional grounds.
This is great news for democracy in Minnesota. Regardless of your feelings on the race, legitimate candidates deserve access to the ballot so people have choice.