New Mexico’s nascent minor political party sued Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver on Tuesday and alleged that her office has enforced “severe and unequal” barriers for its candidates to make the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The New Mexico Forward Party filed the lawsuit, which claims its candidates’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated, in U.S. District Court. Like another ballot access case recently filed by independent gubernatorial candidate Ken Miyagishima, party officials allege that they have to gather excessive numbers of signatures compared to candidates running with either of the major political parties.
Since the party only gained official minor party status earlier this year and still has a small registered voter base, its candidates were required to gather more than 14,000 signatures for statewide offices, the lawsuit alleges. By contrast, Democratic and Republican candidates seeking statewide office must gather approximately 2,500 and 2,350, respectively.
New Mexico Forward Party Chair Bob Perls in a news release said he had previously spent a decade working to address “discriminatory and unfair ballot access laws” in the Legislature when he was president of New Mexico Open Elections. He noted that he plans to work with state lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, in the 2027 legislative session to reduce and equalize signature-gathering requirements.
Perls, who unsuccessfully filed to run for U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), told Source NM that he and the state Forward Party’s candidates intentionally targeted races that would otherwise go uncontested.
“We do not have crowded ballots. In fact, we have the emptiest ballots in the nation,” Perls said. “All we’re trying to do is give people choices.”
He said the signature requirements make it “impossible” for anyone who isn’t a Democrat or Republican to get on the ballot.
His party’s lawsuit asks a judge to put several of the disqualified Forward Party candidates on the ballot.
A spokesperson for the New Mexico Secretary of State on Wednesday said the office had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit.
Perls’ party in June filed signatures to place five candidates on the November ballot: Perls for U.S. Senate; former Albuquerque Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Michael Vigil for Office of the State Auditor; and candidates for the Public Education Commission and county magistrate judgeships.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang visited Santa Fe in April to announce that the Forward Party would seek minor party status. Tenets for the party, which has fielded candidates across the nation regardless of whether they were previously Democrats or Republicans, include treating “everyone with dignity and respect” and acting “with ethics, integrity and compassion.” The New Mexico Forward Party gained that status with the state in May.
