The Prohibition Party has cancelled its national convention, which had been set for June 2015 in Helen, Georgia. Instead the party will chose a presidential candidate by conference call in July 2015. “Member” is someone who had contributed to the party no later than May 5, 2015.
In 2004 the Reform Party also held a telephone conference call to choose a presidential nominee. Ralph Nader received the nomination. Later the party held an in-person meeting because of fears that the first national convention would not be considered valid by Florida election officials.
What is the point of this party even having a candidate when they don’t even bother with even making an attempt at ballot access in the easiest of states? They don’t even bother with filing as an official write-in when there is no cost other than a stamp and an envelope.
Jeff Becker: The Party has a potential presidential ticket, and will attempt to get them on the ballot in the two states which filing fees of only $500 each – Louisiana and Colorado – will put them on.
The party may attempt Tennessee where only some 750 signatures evenly secured from each of the congressional districts of the state will allow them to be put on.
The party nominees may also attempt to secure the individual presidential nomination from some state parties, that do not participate in a National Convention.
The Prohibition Party – may be slowly dying – but there are enough live bodies to keep it around a few more years. It is the oldest 3rd party of continuous existence in the United States (founded in 1869) and had it’s first Presidential ticket in 1872. Even though in 2012, it only made the ballot in Louisiana, it has never missed a presidential election without a candidate since 1872. No other 3rd party in the United States can make this claim.
And this is what the party is more focused on, to make sure this tradition continues. The party is slowly realizing that it must equally address other issues in addition to the destructiveness of Alcohol to be considered serious by the voters. There is still internal disagreement over whether it should change its name to show a more broader-based attitude. Hopefully, a younger generation will take advantage of the opportunity to use this historic vehicle and allow it to have more participation and influence in the electoral process.
Jeff – Getting write-ins official in not so easy as just an envelope and a stamp. As I recall, in California a full slate of Electors (that is 53 of them) must be filed. Polling places then are supposed to maintain lists of candidates for whom write-ins are authorized but they certainly don’t make it that well known to those who visit polling place. And now, with such a huge percentage of Calif. voters voting by mail, they are not even alerted to the possibility of casting a write-in. Then, you really have no guarantee that the officials will actually count write-ins. Finally, write-in votes are not reported by the news day of, day after, etc. of an election. Especially for Pres/Veep, write-ins are not so effective an alternative.
I am not saying that official write in status is easy in every state. But in 2012, West Virginia native Jack Fellure was their nominee and he did not even bother to file for write-in status in his own state! Thanks to litigation by the founders of the Constitution Party here in 2000, there is no longer any filing fee required to be a candidate. All Mr. Fellure had to do was fill out a candidacy announcement form, get it notarized, and mail it in – which he did not to. But Santa Clause did!
In my experience, the party was populated mostly by people who’d lived during Prohibition. As they died off, the party shrank. In my opinion the people running it now simply want to be big frogs in that particular small pond, and they’ll stay around as long as there’s someone who can run the website.