Lana Leguía did everything the law required. She turned in more than enough signatures to run as the Libertarian in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. The Division of Elections accepted 755 of them. The threshold is 250. Case closed, right?
Wrong!
The Republican State Committee challenged 670 of those signatures because three of the people who collected them lived in New York. New Jersey still enforces a law requiring circulators of independent and third-party petitions to be state residents. Knock those signatures out and Lana is left with 85. Off the ballot.
An administrative law judge went along with it. Secretary of State Dale Caldwell reversed the ruling, correctly noting that a 2021 federal court already struck down a nearly identical residency requirement for primary petitions. Caldwell applied the same First Amendment logic to general-election candidates. The Appellate Division then decided Caldwell had overstepped by refusing to enforce the statute. The New Jersey Supreme Court refused to even take up the constitutional question — twice.
This is not just about Lana.
This is a fight for every Libertarian candidate that will run in the future.
Every time the two parties and the courts succeed in knocking one of us off the ballot with these technicalities, the barrier gets higher for the next candidate. Local races, statewide races, congressional races — it all gets harder. The major parties get automatic access. We get obstacle courses written by the people already in power. Petition circulation is core political speech. Courts have said so for decades. Yet New Jersey still uses residency rules and procedural games to keep competition out.
Republicans will claim they’re only enforcing the law. Then change the law. Or admit that when a Libertarian starts looking like she might actually matter in a competitive district, the priority becomes eliminating the choice instead of beating her on the issues.
Lana is taking this to federal court. And she most undoubtedly should. Libertarians in and out of state should be outraged by what is going on! The Constitution sets the qualifications for Congress. States do not get to invent extra barriers that effectively disqualify candidates they don’t want on the ballot. When they get away with it against one of us, they get away with it against all of us.
Ballot access is the first freedom. Without it, the rest is just theater.
It is time for Libertarians to stand and be counted on this issue, so show your support and please donate to help Lana Leguía’s defense fund. Every dollar counts and the court fees are stacking up!