The former Las Cruces mayor, now running for governor as an independent, says New Mexico’s signature requirements unfairly burden independent candidates.

Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Ken Miyagishima, the former longest-serving Las Cruces mayor who is now running as an independent to be New Mexico governor, last week sued New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and alleged that independent candidates face unfair obstacles to make the ballot.

State law requires major party candidates who don’t earn enough pre-primary delegates to automatically make the ballot to gather signatures equal to 2% of the number of their party’s voters who participated in the state’s last gubernatorial election. For Democrats, that’s just more than 2,500 voters and for Republicans, it’s nearly 2,400.

Independent, minor party and write-in candidates, however, must gather signatures equal to 2% of all voters who participated in the most recent gubernatorial election — more than 14,000 — to make the Nov. 3 general election ballot. And they only have until June 25 to do so.

“To me, it just isn’t right,” Miyagishima, who is representing himself after initially reaching out to eight attorneys, told Source NM. “I don’t really know how they came up with the 2%. You saw how small the turnout was for independents during the primary.”

New Mexico independents were able to vote in a primary election for the first time during the June 2 primary. The state’s number of “decline to state” voters who do not affiliate with a political party has grown steadily in recent years — they now make up more than a quarter of the state’s electorate. According to the Secretary of State’s Office unofficial results, just under 10% of voters registered as independent or “decline to state” cast ballots last week.

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Miyagishima said his campaign has gathered more than half of the required signatures, but at their current rate of gathering about 150 each day, securing the required amount by the June 25 deadline appears unlikely.

His lawsuit alleges that the current requirements under state law violate the First and 14th amendments and “disproportionately” favor major party candidates.

Miyagishima requested an expedited hearing before a state district judge in Santa Fe, though court records show a hearing has yet to be scheduled. He is also seeking to reduce the number of required signatures by half — to 7,100.

Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state’s director of communications, legislative and executive affairs, in an email told Source NM that her office had received and was still reviewing Miyagishima’s lawsuit.

Miyagishima began his gubernatorial bid as a Democrat. He left the party to run as an independent in February, one day before candidates had to turn in enough signatures to make their political party’s June primary ballot.

“I wouldn’t say I was struggling, but we didn’t knock it out of the park,” he said at the time about his Democratic campaign’s signature gathering.

Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.