Opinion ID: 812909
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Relevant 2011 amendments

Text: A “recognized minor party” is defined by the 2011 amendments as any group or association that has successfully petitioned by filing with the coordinator of elections a petition which shall conform to requirements established by the coordinator of elections, but which must at a minimum bear the signatures of registered voters equal to at least two and one-half percent (2.5%) of the total number of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election of governor, and on each page of the petition, state its purpose, state its name, and contain the names of registered voters from a single county[.] Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-1-104(a)(24). This 2.5% signature requirement comes directly from the previously invalidated legislation, as does the deadline for when a party must submit its petition. That deadline, which is set forth in a separate provision, is 119 days before the date of the August primary election, see id. §§ 2-13-107(a) (2011) (amended 2012), 2-5-101(a)(1), a time period effectively indistinguishable from the prior 120-day filing deadline. Under these requirements, a minor party would have had to submit a No. 12-5271 Green Party of Tenn., et al. v. Hargett, et al. Page 4 petition containing at least 40,039 valid signatures by April 5, 2012 in order to qualify for Tennessee’s November 2012 general-election ballot. In addition to transplanting the petition requirements from statewide political parties to recognized minor parties, the 2011 amendments make clear that minor parties must nominate their candidates for governor, Tennessee General Assembly, United States senator, and United States representative by means of a primary election, to be held in early August of the election year. Id. § 2-13-202 (2011) (amended 2012). The candidates for these offices must also submit a nominating petition that “meets the statutory requirements to be declared a recognized minor party,” id. § 2-13-107(c) (2011) (amended 2012), meaning that the petition must satisfy the same 2.5% signature provision and 119-day filing deadline described above. But the candidates for all other offices (including presidential candidates) may be nominated by any method authorized under each particular party’s own internal rules. Id. § 2-13-203(a)(1). Along with these ballot-access laws, the plaintiffs challenge two other statutory provisions created by the 2011 amendments. The first prescribes the order in which each party is to be listed on the general-election ballot (hereinafter referred to as the “partyorder provision”). This provision reads: “[O]n general election ballots, the name of each political party having nominees on the ballot shall be listed in the following order: majority party, minority party, and recognized minor party, if any.” Id. § 2-5-208(d)(1). “Majority party” and “minority party,” in turn, refer to the parties whose members hold the largest and second largest number of seats in the combined houses of the Tennessee General Assembly. Id. § 2-1-104(a)(11), (12). The final challenged provision imposes a restriction on the words that a recognized minor party may use in its name on the ballot. This provision mandates that the name “shall not include the word ‘independent’ or ‘nonpartisan,’” and that “[t]he coordinator of elections shall redact any portion of a minor party name that violates this section.” Id. § 2-13-107(d). The 2011 legislation went into effect in May of that year. No. 12-5271 Green Party of Tenn., et al. v. Hargett, et al. Page 5