Clifton DeBerry died on March 24, 2006, at the age of 82. He was the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate in 1964. He was the first non-caucasian presidential candidate to ever appear on a government-printed ballot anywhere in the United States. Although Clennon King, another African-American, was the presidential candidate of the Independent Afro-American Party in 1960, and although that party appeared on the ballot in one state (Alabama), King’s name did not actually appear on the ballot. At the time, Alabama did not print the names of any presidential candidates on its ballot, just the party label and the names of the candidates for presidential elector.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Alabama was doing it right, interestingly enough.
I remember seeing ballots in my childhood and they included the names of the electors, as well as the candidates.
All the people are allowed to vote for, according to the Constitution, is the slate of electors.
Amazingly, the folks who wrote the Constitution knew what they were doing.
Today’s “news” media and the schools systems are doing a criminal disservice by not explaining how the Electoral College works, by not explaining that the 50 sovereign states are indeed sovereign and that this country is properly referred to as “these” United States.
The printing of party names on ballots, the Electoral College, and the “sovereignty” (whatever the hell that means) of “states” have no logical connection to each other. They are completely severable. The only connection between them is ideological, in the form of fashionable “those dead white males were right about everything!” constitutionalism.
Mr. Prindle if you do not know what sovereignty means might I suggest you get a dictionary. Nice work Mr. Morrison I appreciate hearing your points of view.