Reform Party Presidential Candidate Roque De Le Fuente has joined with Green Party nominee Jill Stein to file a lawsuit over Oklahoma ballot access laws in federal court. This lawsuit sites “an unnecessarily early petition filing deadline, and unnecessarily high petition signature requirement”.
Oklahoma is notorious for keeping minor parties off the ballot. It takes 25,000 valid petition signatures for a candidate to receive ballot access. These signatures must be turned in by July 15th. The last time a minor party candidate achieved ballot access was in 2000, when Pat Buchanan ran on the Reform Party line. The last time that an independent was balloted in Oklahoma was Ross Perot in the1992.
The aim of this lawsuit is to gain ballot access by keeping the Oklahoma Board of Elections from enforcing unconstitutional ballot restrictions.
