A bill would expand ballot access in North Carolina.

State Sen. Jim Jacumin, a Burke County Republican, said he filed the Electoral Freedom Act after intensive lobbying by a constituent.

The bill would reduce the number of signatures required for a political party or unaffiliated candidate to be recognized by the state.

It is being pushed by North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections, a political action committee formed by UNC-Charlotte political science major Jordon Greene.

The group, which had an annual budget of $81 last year, is nonpartisan.

Its Web site includes links to the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties, which are recognized, as well as the Constitution Party, the Green Party and the Modern Whigs, which are not.

"We want everyone to be able to come to us for information and work together toward the goal of alleviating the problem of ballot access," Greene said.

The Libertarian Party believes it has collected enough signatures to get back on the ballot for the November election.

Last week, party officials said they turned in 72,000 signatures to the State Board of Elections to try to gain ballot access for their prospective nominees, Titan Barksdale reports. Libertarians said they have spent four years and and nearly $130,000 collecting the signatures to meet the law that party officials are fighting to overturn.

Officials with the elections board said they are still combing through the signatures to verify their authenticity. The certification process should be completed this week, officials said. If the signatures are certified, it would mark the eighth time the party has been on the ballot.

Libertarians say the effort to get ballot access has been difficult. It's the central issue in a pending lawsuit over the state's ballot access rules for third-party candidates.

State law requires third parties to collect signatures equal to 2 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial race. Attorneys for Libertarian and Green Party candidates argued earlier this month in Wake Superior Court that the law is unconstitutional.

The presiding judge over the case has yet to make a ruling.

Supporters of Ralph Nader have a tough road ahead.

Under state law, they will have to get the signatures of 2 percent of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election—or 69,734 people—to get him on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.

Each signature must come from a registered voter. In addition, at least 200 of those voters must be from four Congressional districts.

The signatures must be verified by the county boards of election where each voter is registered and then presented to the State Board of Elections by noon on June 27.

Nader could also run as a write-in candidate, which only requires 500 signatures from registered voters, but his name wouldn't appear on the ballot, which reduces the chances of garnering significant support.

In the 2004 election, Nader got 1,805 votes in North Carolina, or half of a tenth of a percent of the total, as a write-in candidate. He was not on the 2000 ballot.