Opinion ID: 177129
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Fenton

Text: Mr. Fenton argues that by requiring him to meet the ballot-access requirements in the Election Code applicable to other candidates, the district court effectively rewrote the Election Code with respect to unregistered-voter candidates. He maintains that because the Election Code's ballot-access requirements apply only to registered voters, none apply to candidates who are not registered to vote. Therefore, he reasons, the court improperly added provisions to the Election Code when it held that he had to meet the Code's ballot-access requirements despite his unregistered status. Mr. Fenton's argument mischaracterizes the Code and the proceedings. The Election Code contains different requirements for a candidate to get on the ballot depending on whether he is running as the nominee of a major party, as the nominee of a minor party, or as an independent candidate. The only ballot-access requirement underlying Mr. Fenton's appeal is the requirement that a candidate be a registered voter to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. [6] The district court agreed that the Code unconstitutionally requires a congressional candidate to be registered to vote, so it invalidated that requirement. Moreover, the court held that if a ballot-access provision would require Mr. Fenton to prove membership in a party, the Secretary of State could not require that he do so solely through voter registration. The court did not, however, invalidate any ballot-access requirement relating to major or minor party nominees or independent candidates except those requiring a candidate to be a registered voter. The course that Mr. Fenton would have to take to get on the ballot was therefore clear. As the court explained in its remedial order, once Mr. Fenton determined whether he was going to run as a party nominee or as an independent candidate, he had to comply with the ballot-access requirements related to that chosen status. The court's decision did not add new provisions to the Election Code. Rather than imposing new requirements on unregistered candidates, the court merely left intact all requirements except the registration requirement. Likewise unavailing is Mr. Fenton's contention that the court's remedial order ignored the law of the case established in the summary-judgment ruling. The court concluded on summary judgment only that New Mexico could not require Mr. Fenton to be a registered voter to qualify as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. It did not hold that Mr. Fenton should automatically be placed on the ballot. For Mr. Fenton to argue otherwise is inconsistent with what he said in the Emergency Motion, which sought further rulings from the district court that would have been unnecessary if he believed that he was already assured of being on the ballot. Indeed, the Emergency Motion's premise for requesting an expedited ruling was that [t]he period for petition collection is already well under way, and the date when ballot access petitions must be filed is rapidly approaching. R. at 994 (footnote omitted). Mr. Fenton clearly understood that, absent further court action, he would need to collect the necessary petition signatures. We also are not persuaded by Mr. Fenton's argument that the district court's remedial order denied him due process because he had inadequate time to obtain petition signatures after the order was entered. Surely, a potential candidate for office should not be permitted to gain access to the ballot by suing to invalidate the petition requirement, losing the suit, and then claiming that there was inadequate time after judgment to obtain petition signatures. The potential candidate should have been gathering petition signatures while pursuing the litigation. The only difference between Mr. Fenton and such a potential candidate is that he prevailed on one claim of his challenge to the Election Code. But the district court never suggested to him that he did not need to gather petition signatures, and his status as one not registered to vote was unrelated to the petition process. He had as much time as any other candidate to gather signatures. In addition, there is no merit to his contention that he was denied due process because candidates who were not registered voters had no notice of what, if any, petition requirements they would need to satisfy. As we have already explained, candidates were on notice that they needed to comply with all requirements of the Election Code that are constitutional. Finally, we reject Mr. Fenton's argument that the sole remedy for the unconstitutionality of the registered-voter requirement was to order his name placed on the ballot. He relies on two Supreme Court cases in which the Court ordered that a party or a candidate be placed on the ballot. But neither imposed an absolute rule. Instead, each looked to the particular circumstances of the case in crafting an appropriate remedy for the unconstitutional limitation. See Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 35, 89 S.Ct. 5, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968) (concluding that under the circumstances, Ohio would be required to print the name of the Ohio American Independent Party on the ballot, but the Socialist Labor Party would be limited to the relief previously granted, namely space on the ballot for write-in votes); McCarthy v. Briscoe, 429 U.S. 1317, 1322-23, 97 S.Ct. 10, 50 L.Ed.2d 49 (1976) (Powell, J., in chambers) (concluding that when the State had precluded independent presidential candidates from gaining access to the ballot, the Court was not limited to allowing the candidate to collect petition signatures to show support, but it could properly look to available evidence or to matters subject to judicial notice to determine whether there is reason to assume the requisite community support to place the candidate's name on the ballot). The district court properly concluded that it was not necessary to place Mr. Fenton's name on the ballot to remedy the unconstitutional limitation on his access to the ballot. It was enough to permit him to qualify for the ballot through the petition process.