The Maryland State Board of Elections recently determined that the Independent Party is no longer ballot-qualified, because it has no officers.
The Independent Party became ballot-qualified in 2008. It was formed by supporters of Ralph Nader for president. Nader was an independent presidential candidate in 2008, but Maryland requires more than three times as many signatures for a statewide independent candidate, as for an entire new party. So Nader took the pragmatic path and created the Independent Party, so as to decrease the number of signatures he needed. The Independent Party did not have any candidates for office other than for President in 2008, nor since then. Also, in 2009, the party didn’t file any campaign finance reports.
The State Board of Elections learned that the party’s treasurer had moved to Iowa, and that the party seemed to have no other state officers, so the Board declared the party to be no longer ballot-qualified. Without the Board’s action, the party would probably have continued to be ballot-qualified indefinitely, because Maryland recognizes that a party remains ballot-qualified as long as it continues to have registration of at least 1% of the state total (the state also keeps parties on the ballot as long as they poll 1% of the vote for either Governor or President). The Independent Party has registration of 1.05%, but now that the party is disqualified, the state is sending letters to all the party’s registered members, enclosing a new voter registration form and telling them that if they don’t choose another party, they will automatically be converted to independent voters.
So they will go from Independents to…independents?
This is unbelievable. I sometimes wonder if people who claim they want a new 3rd party really do or not. Some Independents in Alabama, would have given almost anything to have had the oppotunity to take control of party with the name of “Independent Party”(with the automatic ballot position which apparently went with it) just for the asking. Surely there are similar Independents in Maryland who would love to have such a party already created and just waiting for leadership. Is it because some 3rd partisans are “too lazy” or just “too stupid” to investigate to find out what is out there waiting for them? Or is it because they are so politically naive they only want a party with the name, “Libertarian,” “Green,” or “Constitution?”
Oh well, as I’ve said many times and I’ll unfortunately keep saying it again and again, 3rd partisans are their own worst enemies.
I didn’t think Maryland had capital punishment.
A single independent voter is of more value in defending free elections than any number of political parties. Third parties cannot compete with two party corruption because the entire idea of partisan politics is to create a state supported party. Two party corruption will have to be overcome by the voters created by the writing of the Constitution, independent voters. The fact that the two major parties claim at the present time that right to participate in elections does not extend to independent voters does not change the task at hand. As long as the American government is controlled by two corrupt political parties, the American government will be little more than a copy of European political corruption. Now that independent voters outnumber Democrats, the largest political party since the election of 1800, independent voters need to concentrate on what they do best, voter registration. The parties are losing voters by trying to impose party membership. Their days are numbered in the United States.