The Libertarian and Green parties have been waiting several months for the North Carolina Supreme Court to decide whether it will force the General Assembly to ease restrictive ballot access laws.

Rep. Steven LaRoque, R-Lenoir, hopes to beat the court to the punch. He filed House Bill 32, the Electoral Freedom Act, Feb. 2.

If passed, the bill would lower the number of signatures third parties and unaffiliated candidates are required to collect before getting on the ballot in North Carolina.

North Carolina places some of the nation’s toughest ballot qualification standards on minor parties and unaffiliated candidates, requiring either to collect at least 85,000 valid signatures from registered voters (2 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election) to run in a statewide election.

The proposed law would eliminate the percentage-based petition requirement, setting the bar at a fixed 10,000 signatures for statewide races, including governor, U.S. president, and U.S. senator; 1,000 for U.S. House of Representatives; 300 for North Carolina Senate; and 150 for North Carolina House.

LaRoque called the 2-percent requirement a “moving target” because it is ever-changing as population grows and voter turnout increases. He said knowing “you’re going to have to get x number of signatures” every year will be easier to plan for.

The bill also would make it easier for parties to stay on the ballot once they qualify. Current election forces a party’s candidate for governor to earn 2 percent of the vote to stay on the ballot after getting there. A candidate garnering less than 2 percent must collect signatures all over again. LaRoque’s bill would allow gubernatorial candidates, for instance, to remain on the ballot if they get at least 10,000 votes.

LaRoque said he sponsored the bill in part because he saw how difficult it was to collect a mere 1,400 signatures (10 percent of registered voters in Kinston) to get a referendum on that city’s ballot making local elections nonpartisan. Once it got on the ballot, the referendum passed by 64 percent.

He said he could only imagine how “burdensome” collecting 85,000 signatures would be.

As a Republican, LaRoque realizes that opening up the ballot to third parties is not going to make his job any easier in future election seasons, but he said he’s “not afraid of competition.”

“That’s what an election is, it’s a competition,” he said. “Competition breeds excellence.”

In court proceedings challenging current ballot access laws, the state has defended its signature requirement as a means of keeping ballots short and simple, arguing too many choices confuse voters.

But third parties claim ballot clutter is a myth. They cite as an example Tennessee, where only 25 signatures are required and only nine parties appear on the ballot.

Free the Vote North Carolina — a nonpartisan political action committee — held a press conference Feb. 1 announcing the formation of the Free the Vote Coalition, an alliance of alternative political parties and public policy groups working to garner support for the bill.

Members of the coalition include: The Conservative Party, The Constitution Party, The Green Party, The Libertarian Party, The Modern Whig Party, The N.C. Center for Voter Education, NC Common Cause, Democracy NC, and the John Locke Foundation.

“It’s pretty significant when you can get the John Locke Foundation and Democracy NC agreeing on something,” said Brian Irving, member of the Libertarian Party and chairman of the coalition.

The bill has bipartisan support in the House, with six Democrats, four Republicans, and one unaffiliated as sponsors. It could face its first committee vote in the House Elections Committee as early as Wednesday.

Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.