On February 7, the Maine House Committee that hears election law bills heard testimony on LD254 and LD329. Both bills got a good reception, with no opposition speakers. On February 9 the same committee will meet again to decide whether to pass the bills. They both make it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. One lowers the vote test from 5% to 1%, and the other bill provides that a party stays on the ballot (regardless of its vote) if its registration membership is at least 5,000 members.
It does seem ironic, doesn’t it, that the U.S. government is spending billions of dollars and hundreds, even thousands, of lives to “bring democracy” to Iraq, yet here in the United States, that same government and those of the 50 sovereign states are so reluctant to “bring democracy” home.
It surprises me that after so many years of developing harsh ballot access laws in the 50 states, the two major parties would allow so many helpful ballot access reform bills to pop up like daisys.
There has got to be a catch to all this ballot access reform. Nothing is ever this simple with the crrupt major parties.