news-record.com

The Libertarian and Green parties lose at the N.C. Court of Appeals today in their challenge of state ballot-access laws.

But it was a split decision, with Judge Ann Marie Calabria dissenting from her colleagues, Chief Judge John Martin and Judge Sanford Steelman.

Calabria believes third parties face an unconstitutionally high  barrier to ballot access.

With a split decision at the COA, the plaintiffs gain an automatic right of appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Those plaintiffs include former local Libertarians Rusty Sheridan and Jennifer Schulz. Sheridan, as a UNCG grad student, once ran against Democrat Kay Hagan in a state Senate race. Schulz, who was Jennifer Medlock at the time, once challenged Republican Howard Coble in a congressional election.

I can't say about the constitutional argument but I think the right thing for the legislature to do politically is to open the ballot a little. There are more than 6,000 registererd Libertarians in North Carolina, and they ought to have a place on the ballot without having to gather something like 70,000 signatures across the state or, if they do that, to win 2 percent of the vote in every gubernatorial or presidential election to retain their ballot status.

The fact is, North Carolina Democrats and Republicans agree on this point: They don't want to share the ballot with any third party. No doubt, it's an insecurity thing.