Today, Tennessee Representative Donna Rowland introduced HB1776. It is identical to SB1327 in the Tennessee State Senate, which was introduced two weeks ago. It permits candidates who use the independent candidate procedure to choose a partisan label (other than just “independent”) to be printed on the November ballot next to the candidate’s name.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
So does this mean there could be more than one candidate from the same party on the November ballot?
Dear Steve Rankin, yes, technically, the Tennessee bills are quite relaxed and there could be two competing candidates with the same minor party label. I wouldn’t have worded the Tennessee bills the way they are worded. However, Tennessee already has a law like this, passed in 1999 or 2000. It let all the “independent” candidates in 2000 choose a party label. Both Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin chose “Reform”, so the Tennessee Dept. of Elections said “OK” and they both had that label. That law said after 2000, the privilege of choosing a label was reserved for groups whose “independent” nominee polled 5%.
So since this very relaxed wording is already in the law, it seemed best to leave it the way it is, and just take out the 5% restriction, so we would have a permanent repeat of what the 2000 situation was.
Not from where we sit. This is being pushed by libertarians and Greens.
You currently can qualify for the Ballot and still not get your third party on the ballot. IE
David Cobb, green candidate, got on the ballot but as a indepedent.
Mr. Winger please site whatever code your quoteing. It might be useful as we go through this hassle again in next election cycle.