Daily News

RALEIGH

A lawsuit filed by the Libertarian and Green parties complaining that it is too difficult to get their candidates on North Carolina ballots is headed to trial after a judge declined to rule in favor of either the parties or state attorneys yesterday.

Judge Leon Stanback of Wake County Superior Court denied motions for summary judgment sought by the parties and the state of North Carolina. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 11 but is likely to be delayed.

The lawsuit, originally filed in September 2005, argues that state law setting the standards to be identified as a political party - and allowing the party’s candidates to be on the ballot - is so onerous that it violates the rights of party members to freedom of speech and association.

The two parties want the state’s ballot-access laws declared unconstitutional and the judge to recognize them as official parties under state law.

The law requires a party to collect nearly 70,000 voter signatures to receive official party status, making it one of the highest thresholds in the country, according to the party leaders and candidates who sued. (more…)