Opinion ID: 4283041
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Signature Gathering Requirement

Text: The URP also argues that SB54 is unconstitutional because the signature requirements for State House and State Senate are overly burdensome.19 Given that the URP’s established procedures do not involve a signature-gathering path at all, the URP’s preference is clearly to have the signature-gathering path to the primary ballot eliminated all-together. Nonetheless, the crux of the URP’s argument challenging this section is that the sheer number of signatures required to access the primary ballot for these two offices is too high a barrier to entry, and thus it unconstitutionally burdens the URP’s right of association. Put differently, the URP argues here that the petition requirements established in SB54 make it too difficult to qualify for the primary ballot for these offices, notwithstanding the fact that the URP would undoubtedly prefer the signature-gathering requirements be so difficult to attain that the only candidates who ever qualified for the primary were the candidates who qualified by winning the URP’s caucus. 50. Its argument is based on a colloquy between the judge and counsel for the State in the First Lawsuit. After reading the exchange, Aplt. App. 345–47, the Court is not left with the impression that the position advanced by the State in the First Lawsuit is “clearly inconsistent” with the position it advances now, see Hansen v. Harper Excavating, Inc., 641 F.3d 1216, 1227 (10th Cir. 2011). For this reason, not to mention the URP’s failure to cite to the Record in the argument section of its brief, see Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A), we AFFIRM the district court’s decision not to apply judicial estoppel. 19 While SB54 establishes varying signature requirements to access the primary ballot for all elections, the district court only discussed the potential unconstitutionality of the requirements for two offices: State House and State Senate. URP III, 177 F. Supp. 3d 1343, 1365 (D. Utah 2016). Therefore we restrict our consideration of the signature requirements to the requirements established for those two offices. 29 We pause briefly to note that SB54’s severability clause would likely preclude us from striking down the entire law even were we to rule in favor of the URP on this issue, see Utah Code § 20A-1-103, but we nonetheless consider this argument in the alternative, and ultimately conclude that the Signature Requirements—while a burden—are not unconstitutional under the Anderson-Burdick balancing test as applied to the URP. Any form of candidate eligibility requirement necessarily implicates basic constitutional rights, but as a practical matter “not all restrictions imposed by the States on candidates’ eligibility [to appear on the] ballot impose constitutionallysuspect burdens on voters’ rights to associate or to choose among candidates.” Anderson, 460 U.S. at 788. As we have previously held, a “state has a legitimate interest in requiring a showing of a ‘significant modicum of support’ before it prints on the state election ballot the name of a political party and its slate of candidates,’” noting that such a requirement “serves the important state interest of avoiding ‘confusion, deception, and even frustration of the democratic process[.]” Artunoff v. Okla. State Election Bd., 687 F.2d 1375, 1378 (10th Cir. 1982) (quoting Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431, 442 (1971)). We have further recognized that there is no hard-and-fast rule as to when a restriction on ballot eligibility becomes an unconstitutional burden. See Artnunoff, 687 F.2d at 1379. Instead, candidate eligibility requirements are considered under the Anderson-Burdick balancing test, in which a court is to weigh the character and magnitude of the asserted injury to the 30 plaintiff against the interests advanced by the State as justifications for the eligibility requirements. Anderson, 460 U.S. at 789. Under SB54, an individual who wants to follow the signature-gathering path onto a State Senate primary ballot is required to collect 2,000 signatures of registered voters who are residents of the district and permitted by the party to vote for its candidates in a primary election. Utah Code § 20A-9-408(8)(b)(iii). For a candidate for the State House, the requirement is 1,000 signatures. Id § 20A-9-408-(8)(b)(iv). The district court stated that these requirements, considered alone, “may be unconstitutional as applied to the URP.” URP III, 177 F. Supp. 3d at 1366 (“[T]he signature gathering requirements under Utah Code §§ 20A-9-408(8)(b)(iii) and - 408(8)(b)(iv) . . . may be unconstitutional as applied to the URP.”). Nonetheless, because the court found signature gathering to be only an additional way of accessing the ballot, and the other way to access the ballot—via the convention path— constitutional, the district court did not invalidate the Signature Requirement, nor did it strike down the law as a whole, relying on LaRouche v. Kezer, 990 F.2d 36 (2d Cir. 1993). URP III, 177 F. Supp. 3d at 1368.
In LaRouche, two candidates for the Democratic nomination for president challenged their inability to qualify for the Connecticut primary election ballot. LaRouche, 990 F.2d at 37. At issue were two Connecticut ballot-access laws. The first, the “media recognition” statute, required the Secretary of State to place on the primary ballot those candidates who are “generally and seriously recognized 31 according to reports in the national or state news media.” Id. (quoting Conn. Gen. Stat. § 9–465(a) (1989)). The second, the “petition alternative” statute, enabled candidates failing to gain access under the media recognition statute to appear on the ballot “if, within the next fourteen days, they collect signatures from one percent of their party’s registered voters.” Id. (citing Conn. Gen. Stat § 9–465(b), 9–467 to 469 (1989)). The district court in that case examined the two statutes in isolation, ultimately upholding the petition alternative but ruling that the media recognition statute was void for vagueness. LaRouche v. Kezer, 787 F. Supp. 298, 304–05 (D. Conn. 1992). On appeal, the Second Circuit held that the district court had erred in analyzing each statute separately. Rather, the court held, the constitutionality of a state’s ballot access provisions should be examined in light of the entirety of the state’s comprehensive election code. LaRouche, 990 F.2d at 39 (citing Burdick v. Takushi, 304 U.S. 428, 438–39 (1992); Storer, 415 U.S. at 738–40 (1974); Am. Party of Tex., 415 U.S. at 786–87). From this perspective, the court concluded that: if the petition alternative would be constitutional standing alone, the additional method of a media recognition test is not in any sense an unconstitutional burden. To the contrary, because it is not constitutionally required, the media recognition test, whether or not vague, increases the opportunities to get on the ballot and reduces the burdens on candidates. . . . In short, if the district court was correct about the constitutionality of the petition alternative standing alone, then the media recognition statute is a fortiori valid as an additional means of ballot access. LaRouche, 990 F.2d at 38–39. The court did add, however, that this approach would not save a ballot qualification statute if the statute were “wholly irrational—a coin32 flip test, for example[.]” Id. at 38 n.1. The lesson from LaRouche, then, is that, provided it is not wholly irrational, an otherwise unconstitutional ballot-access statute will not be struck down so long as there is an alternative, constitutional, method of accessing the ballot. We do not in this case need to adopt this as a per se rule. We do, however, agree with the LaRouche court’s recognition of Supreme Court precedent—not to mention our own precedent—as requiring us to analyze ballot-access opportunities in sum rather than in isolation. See, e.g., Burdick, 504 U.S. at 438–39 (finding a ban on write-in voting to be a limited burden “in light of the adequate ballot access afforded under Hawaii’s election code.”); Artunoff, 687 F.2d at 1379 (holding that the constitutionality of state ballot access laws should be determined only after “due consideration is given to the practical effect of the election laws of a given state, viewed in their totality”) (citing Clements v. Fashing, 457 U.S. 957 (1982)). The lesson we take from LaRouche, then, is that when conducting Anderson-Burdick balancing with regards to state ballot-access laws, due weight should be accorded to whether a challenged provision stands in isolation as the sole method for accessing the ballot, or whether candidates have alternative and constitutionally sufficient paths through which to qualify. In the latter circumstance, the burden that any one particular route to ballot access that the law places on candidates, voters, and parties is necessarily reduced.
33 Applying this approach to the Utah Election Code, we find that the Signature Requirement withstands constitutional scrutiny. SB54 provides two methods for candidates to qualify for the primary ballot for a QPP. First, a candidate may qualify for the primary ballot at the QPP’s nominating caucus. Utah Code § 20A-9-407. No party to this lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of this provision, and in fact the URP’s primary assertion, as discussed above, is that this should be the only available method for qualifying for the Republican primary ballot. Therefore, we accept that there is at least one constitutional method of ballot access under the Utah election code. The second method allows a candidate to gain access to the primary ballot by gathering signatures of “registered voters in the state who are permitted by the qualified political party to vote for the qualified political party’s candidates in the primary election.” Utah Code § 20A-9-408(8). For candidates seeking a place on the ballot for State House, the law requires the collection of 1,000 signatures. Id. at 20A-9-408(8)(b)(iv). For candidates seeking a place on the ballot for State Senate, the required number swells to 2,000. Id. 20A-9-408(8)(b)(iii).20 20 When it drafted these figures the Utah legislature expected the pool of available signatories to be roughly twice as large as it currently stands, thereby reducing the required percentages by approximately half. After the district court struck down the Unaffiliated Voter Provision in the First Lawsuit, however, the pool of registered voters permitted to vote in a Republican primary election—the pool of available signatories for a Republican candidate—dropped by nearly 46% statewide as unaffiliated voters were no longer eligible to sign a candidate’s petition. As of November 27, 2017, there were 603,195 registered unaffiliated voters in Utah, and 715,983 registered Republicans. Utah Lieutenant Governor Elections, Voters by Party and Status, www.elections.utah.gov/party-and-status (last visited 11/27/2017). 34 In a perfect example of why it is prudent for legislatures to use ratio requirements as opposed to absolute numbers, the burden imposed by the signaturegathering requirements varies widely from district to district. At the outset of this litigation, a candidate using the signature-gathering path to access the primary ballot for State Senate needed to collect signatures from between 6.21% of registered Republicans (in district 14) and 30.82% of registered Republicans (in district 1) depending on the district in which he or she was running. The numbers are even starker for the State House, where a candidate was required to collect signatures from between 7.14% (in district 27) and 57.2% (in district 26) of the registered Republicans in a given district.21 The URP argues that these numbers are so high as to severely burden its right of association with potential candidates of its party and cannot be saved as reasonably calculated to serve a compelling state interest. Aplt. Br. at 42–45. If the signature-gathering path stood alone we would be inclined to agree. Petition requirements are a constitutional method of serving a state’s “legitimate interest in requiring a showing of a ‘significant modicum of support’” before adding a candidate to an election ballot, Artunoff, 687 F.2d at 1378 (quoting Jenness, 403 U.S. at 442), but the Supreme Court has not yet approved a requirement greater than 5% of the registered voters in a given election. See Jenness, 403 U.S. at 438 (upholding a statute requiring a petition signed by 5% of eligible voters in order for 21 These figures are drawn from the Record as it existed when the URP filed for summary judgment on this issue on February 2, 2016. See Aplt. App. 431–435. 35 an independent candidate to qualify for the general election ballot). We do not hold that 5% is the outer-boundary of what can pass constitutional muster, but it is likely the limit is at least visible from there. Where, as here, the regulation requires signatures from over 50% of the eligible voters in some districts, we can conclude that the State’s legitimate interest in requiring a candidate to show a “modicum” of support no longer outweighs the burden imposed on candidates, parties, and most of all, voters, at least as to those districts. However, when viewing the Utah Election Code in totality, See Artunoff, 687 F.2d at 1379, we are not convinced that the burdens imposed by the collection of avenues Utah has created onto a primary ballot unconstitutionally burdens the URP’s First Amendment right of association.22 First, the State has a significant interest in regulating the manner in which a candidate may qualify for an election ballot. A state has a legitimate interest in requiring a showing of a “significant modicum of support” before it prints on the state election ballot the name of a political party and its slate of candidates. This serves the important state interest of avoiding “confusion, deception, and even frustration of the democratic process at the general election.” Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431, 442, (1971). Furthermore, the states “have important interests in protecting the integrity of their political processes from frivolous or fraudulent candidacies, in ensuring that their election processes are efficient, in avoiding voter confusion caused by an overcrowded ballot, and in avoiding the expense and burden of run-off elections.” Clements v. Fashing, 457 U.S. 957 (1982). 22 Our analysis here is confined to the question of whether the Signature Requirement constitutes an unconstitutional burden on the URP. Because the litigants are political parties and not candidates, we do not address the burdens imposed on individual candidates. 36 Artunoff, 687 F.2d at 1378. This interest applies with equal force to primary elections as it does to general elections. N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres, 552 U.S. 196, 204 (2008) (“Just as States may require persons to demonstrate a significant modicum of support before allowing them access to the general-election ballot, lest it become unmanageable, they may similarly demand a minimum degree of support for candidate access to a primary ballot.”) (internal citations and quotations omitted). Therefore, for Anderson-Burdick balancing purposes, these “important regulatory interests” will be sufficient to uphold SB54’s Signature Requirements provided the burdens imposed by those requirements are less than severe. See Clingman, 544 U.S. at 586–87. While the petition requirements standing alone would undoubtedly impose a severe burden as to some districts, we cannot find them burdensome on the party within the context of the electoral scheme as a whole. First, the signature-gathering path is only one possible avenue onto the primary election ballot, and all parties to this lawsuit concede the alternative—advancing from the party’s caucus—both is constitutional and would be constitutional standing alone. Therefore, from the URP’s perspective, the signature-gathering provision only “increases the opportunities to get on the ballot” thereby reducing the burden placed on the URP and other political parties. See LaRouche, 990 F.2d at 38. Furthermore, over an objection from the URP, which tried to establish a dispute of material fact, the district court found that notwithstanding the loftiness of these requirements, the signature gathering path remained “a realistic means of ballot 37 access[.]” URP III, 177 F. Supp. 3d at 1369; see also id. at n.174 (“[T]he URP recognizes that there are at least some URP candidates who have successfully met the signature requirements to obtain access to the ballot.”). This also weighs in favor of finding that the burden is less than severe. Finally, we do recognize that some of these numbers—57%, in one particular house district—are eye-popping. Yet we are struck that the enormity of these figures says more about the compartmentalization of our current political landscape than it does the validity of SB54. The 57% figure comes from House District 26 which was one of only a handful of districts in Utah—an overwhelmingly Republican state—that is packed so full of Democratic voters that Republicans did not even bother fielding a candidate there in the most recent election. In 2014 the Republicans fielded a candidate, but that candidate received just 28% of the votes, compared to 72% for the Democratic candidate.23 According to data in the Record, in 2016 District 26 had 9,522 registered voters, just 18% of whom were registered Republicans. This in a state where 48% of the registered voters statewide were registered Republicans. Against this backdrop, it is more likely these eye-popping numbers say more about modern political gerrymandering and segmentation than they about do the constitutionality of SB54. Whether by overt gerrymandering, a growing tendency of people to gravitate towards those who share their politics, or some combination of the 23 Utah Lieutenant Governor Elections, Election Results, https://elections.utah.gov/election-resources/election-results, (last visited Nov. 27, 2017). 38 two, the percentages imposed by the Signature Requirement in several Utah districts is so high precisely because there are so many Democrats packed into those particular districts that the URP will never actually be able to capture that seat. Where the URP has no reasonable likelihood of fielding or electing a serious candidate in those districts with high percentage requirements of petition signatures, we cannot say the URP has suffered any real injury to its constitutional right of association when it was largely redistricting decisions that caused such anomalies.24 When we look at the state’s electoral scheme in totality, including the retention of the caucus system as a method of qualifying a candidate for the primary ballot, we conclude that the Signature Requirement does not impose a severe burden on the URP’s associational rights. Therefore we hold that Utah’s legitimate interest in requiring a candidate to demonstrate a minimum degree of support in terms of gathering 1,000 or 2,000 signatures on a petition before being placed on the primary ballot for the State House or State Senate is sufficient to outweigh the provision’s minimal burdens on the URP. Therefore we AFFIRM the district court’s ruling that the challenged Signature Requirements do not constitute an unconstitutional burden on the URP.