Opinion ID: 2204603
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutionality of the Primary Threshold Law

Text: Petitioners argue that by prohibiting access to the general election ballot for Independence Party candidates the primary threshold law violates petitioners' rights protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to vote and to associate for the advancement of their political beliefs, as well as their rights to equal protection of the laws and due process. Petitioners also assert analogous rights under the Minnesota Constitution. Petitioners argue that these constitutional rights are infringed because of the discriminatory impact the primary threshold law has on Independence Party candidates and their supporters. Petitioners point out that the number of votes needed to satisfy the ten percent threshold of the statute is different in each legislative district and is different for each party within a district. According to petitioners, the two old and well-established major political parties easily satisfy the threshold, but the statute imposes an unfair burden for less-established major political parties. Disparate treatment is also evidenced, petitioners assert, by the fact that the Green Party was able to satisfy the threshold with only 35 votes, but the Independence Party was required to receive over twice as many votes in the same district. Moreover, petitioners argue minor political party candidates who can use the nominating petition process need not satisfy the ten percent threshold at all. Petitioners assert that the primary threshold law denies access to the ballot to the political parties that have gained sufficient momentum to threaten the well-established major parties. Petitioners contend that such burdens must be subjected to strict scrutiny and cannot survive unless they are narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling state interest. The secretary of state does not disagree with petitioners' constitutional arguments. Although pointing out that the United States Supreme Court has recognized the right of states to require candidates and political parties to make some preliminary showing of support in order to qualify for a place on the ballot, citing Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189, 107 S.Ct. 533, 93 L.Ed.2d 499 (1986), the secretary of state explains that the Minnesota primary threshold law imposes a burden on candidates that is significantly different than the statute upheld in Munro, because the number of votes required can be significantly different for different parties in the same election year. The secretary of state concludes [i]t is, therefore, unclear what the State's interest is in imposing the voting threshold set forth in section 204D.10, subdivision 2. Denial of a candidate's access to the ballot implicates important constitutional rights that are central to preservation of our democracy: the right to vote and the right to associate in pursuit of common political ends. E.g., Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, 787-88, 103 S.Ct. 1564, 75 L.Ed.2d 547 (1983). It is equally well-established that to maintain fair, honest and orderly elections, states may impose regulations that in some measure burden the rights to vote and associate. Id. at 788. In Timmons, the Supreme Court summarized the analytical approach used to address these competing interests in a challenge to a state's electoral regulations: When deciding whether a state election law violates First and Fourteenth Amendment associational rights, we weigh the character and magnitude of the burden the State's rule imposes on those rights against the interests the State contends justify that burden, and consider the extent to which the State's concerns make the burden necessary. Regulations imposing severe burdens on plaintiffs' rights must be narrowly tailored and advance a compelling state interest. Lesser burdens, however, trigger less exacting review, and a State's `important regulatory interests' will usually be enough to justify `reasonable, nondiscriminatory restrictions.' No bright line separates permissible election related regulation from unconstitutional infringements on First Amendment freedoms. 520 U.S. at 358-59, 117 S.Ct. 1364 (citations omitted); see also Clayton v. Kiffmeyer, 688 N.W.2d 117, 128-29 (Minn. 2004). Petitioners argue, and respondent agrees, that the discriminatory treatment and denial of access to the ballot effected by the primary threshold law are not justified by any compelling, or even rational, state interest. The irrationality and arbitrariness of the primary threshold law are evident in several aspects of the statute's operation. First, there is a different primary vote threshold applicable to different political parties. The result is that Independence Party candidates with more demonstrated voter support than Green Party candidates are nevertheless denied access to the general election ballot. This result supports the conclusion that the primary threshold law cannot be justified as a statute that restricts ballot access to candidates who demonstrate some minimum level of support. [11] Moreover, as petitioners point out, there is the incongruity that the Independence Party has qualified as a major political party based on the strength of the votes it received at the last general election. By statute, it retains that major political party status until it fails to gain the requisite voter support at another general election. Minn.Stat. § 200.02, subd. 7(d) (2002). Nevertheless, the primary threshold law deprives candidates of a major political party access to the general election ballot based on the party's primary results. Finally, although the primary threshold law purports to provide an alternative process for access to the general election ballot through nominating petitions, the statutory reference is to a petition process that is not available after the primary election. In light of these characteristics of the challenged law and the unusual circumstance that the state, through respondent secretary of state and her counsel, the Minnesota Attorney General, acknowledges that there is no rational state purpose served by the primary threshold law, we need not engage in the weighing of burdens and state regulatory interests prescribed in Timmons. In the absence of any suggested rational purpose for the law, we have no difficulty concluding that by denying Independence Party candidates access to the general election ballot the primary threshold law violates petitioners' constitutional rights to vote and to associate for the advancement of political beliefs under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. [12] On that basis, we ordered the secretary of state to certify the candidates of the Independence Party who received the most votes in the primary as the nominees of that party for placement on the general election ballot. Petition granted. ANDERSON, G. BARRY, J., not having been a member of this court at the time of the argument and submission, took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.