The Reform Party is not ballot-qualified in California; it went off the ballot in November 2002 because it didn’t poll at least 2% of the vote for any statewide race. It can get back on the ballot if it persuades 88,991 people to register into the party.
California makes it easy for an unqualified party to keep track of its registrations. An unqualified party simply requests this service. The California Secretary of State says there are 26,316 registered Reform Party members, as of the October 20, 2008 tally. However, this total surely is understated, because it shows “zero” Reform Party registrants in Sacramento County, a county with over 684,000 registered voters. Last year Sacramento County was reporting 1,128 Reform Party registrants. The Sacramento County Elections Department insists there are no Reform Party registrants. If anyone reading this can e-mail me at richardwinger@yahoo.com and tell me the name and address of any registered member of the Reform Party in Sacramento County, or anyone whom I could ask for such information, please do.
Even with the Sacramento County problem, the Reform Party seems to be increasing its registration. Between the September 5, 2008 tally and the most recent tally, it gained in registrations in Humboldt, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lassen, and Trinity Counties. The biggest growth was in Kern County, which went from 346 registrants in September 2008 to 1,075 in October 2008.
Oh, the stories I could tell bout Sandy Ego County [and John Dennis Coffey bout San Bernardino County]! Check out FORMER RfP type philsawyer8@msn.com “Nader will win the whole shooting match in 2008” in the Sac area.
The current establishment wonk is Democrat Debra Bowden. See: ss.ca.gov
Rfm increases, via aching hunger for viable solutions from the murkie, muckie middle.
Rfm problems, [like Constitution Party/ American Independent Party obstructionists with ‘candidate’ Alan Keyes] the turned out old guard [and Isreal First Lobby] —John Blare, John Coffey, John Bambey, Valli Sharpe Geisler, have kept current officers and recommendations [Nader – Gonzales] off of the official state [Duopoly Establishment] bulletin board.
Rfm Numbers? as reliable as a sub prime mortage!
The California Secretary of State appears to combine the totals for parties attempting to qualify and “miscellaneous” registrations into a single “other” category – even though Section 5002 of the election code requires separate tabulation.
If you go back through time, there are significant changes in the number of “other” voters whenever a party qualified (Reform and Peace&Freedom) or was disqualified (Reform and NLP). In addition, the sum of the registration for the 7 qualified parties, the “other” voters, and the declined-to-state voters, equals the total number of registered voters.
Nonetheless, according to the SoS web site, as of December 7, 2007 – Sacramento County had 1,683 “other” voters; of which 2,521 (150%) were Reform Party registrants. This was a change from “comparable” numbers from September 2007 of 998, 1705, and 59%; and January 2008 of 0, 1675, and 0%.
So from September to December to Janauary, the Reform component of “other” voters in Sacramento County went from 59% to 150% to 0%. Rather remarkable considering that the total number of “other” voters was relatively unchanged during this period, with a 1.8% decline.