PROVIDENCE — Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch’s office said Wednesday it will not appeal a federal judge’s ruling that struck down part of the state election law as it pertains to new political parties.

Lynch’s office had defended the Board of Elections and Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis in the Moderate Party of Rhode Island’s challenge of the law stipulating how new parties can get on the ballot.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith, on May 29, upheld the requirement that new parties using petitions to win ballot position collect a number of signatures equal to 5 percent of the turnout in the previous election. But he struck down the stipulation that the petition drive may not begin until Jan. 1 of the election year.

Lynch’s decision isn’t binding on the elections board, but its chairman, John A. Daluz, said he expected his board would agree, possibly after a special meeting. “I’m sure that’s the way we’ll go,” he said.

Mollis has already said he did not want to pursue an appeal.

Kenneth Block, the founder of the Moderate Party, called Lynch’s decision and the prediction by Daluz “awesome.”

“I’m very pleased,” Block said. “This is the most sensible solution to the whole thing.”

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Block in the suit, welcomed the state’s decision “to let the Moderate Party prove its worth. That’s what this is all about.”

Judge Smith ruled that forcing a new party to wait until the start of the election year to collect the signatures — 23,588 based on the vote in the 2008 presidential election — would force a new party to spend all its time collecting signatures while the larger, established parties could recruit and campaign for their candidates. That violated federal constitutional rights to freely associate and advance political beliefs as well as the rights of voters to cast their votes effectively, Smith ruled.

Lynch said his main concern was that while Smith threw out the Jan. 1 start date, he didn’t set a new time limit for when signatures could be collected. Rather than go to court to clarify that uncertainty, Lynch said he thought the matter would be better left to the legislature.

“We can’t cast aside process in the anxiousness of the moment to get a new party available,” Lynch said. “But we can’t be obstructionist either.”

jhill@projo.com