On June 17, Maine Governor John Balducci signed LD 1041, the bill that alters how a party remains on the ballot. The old law requires a party to have polled 5% for the office at the top of the ballot, at either of the last two elections (i.e., President or Governor). The new law lets it remain on the ballot if it has 10,000 registrants who voted in the last general election. 10,000 is now 1.06% of the number of registered voters.
The Green Party of Maine, the only ballot-qualified party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has about 31,000 registrants, three-fourths of whom typically vote in the general election. Thus the immediate effect of the bill is that the Green Party is virtually assured of remaining on the ballot for an indefinite time into the future, no matter whether it polls 5% for Governor in the future or not.
The law on how a group becomes a qualified party does not change. The normal process by which a group becomes a qualified party in Maine is by running an independent candidate for President or Governor (a party label is permitted when the independent procedure is used). If that candidate gets 5%, the group becomes a qualified party. There is also a 5% party petition, but that has only been used once, in 1996, by the Reform Party.
The Green Party tried very hard to get a bill like LD 1041 passed four years ago, but failed.
Every election is N-E-W and has ZERO to do with any prior election — much too hard for MORON judges to understand.
P.R. and A.V. before it is too late.
Great Britain recognizes DemoRep’s principle. In Great Britain, there is no such thing as a “qualified political party” for ballot access purposes. But the habit of giving a group special privileges because it polled a substantial vote in the last election is very strongly rooted in the U.S. It’s not easy to overcome 120 years of U.S. history.
The new Maine law is a step in Demo Rep’s direction, though.
How does this affect the LPME up there?
If the Maine Libertarian Party, or the Maine Constitution Party, or the Maine Working Families Party, were to file a notice with the state saying that the party intends to do the 5% petition for party status, the state would start keeping track of its registrants. If such an unqualified party actually got 10,000 registrants, and at least 10,000 of them voted in a general election, such a party would have a strong legal and moral case that it should be recognized also. The US Supreme Court said in Williams v Rhodes that states cannot discriminate against new parties and in favor of old parties. If a new party met the requirements that old parties must meet, it ought to be able to win a lawsuit to get recognized.
Richard:
Does any other state currently or has any in the past used this prinicple to determine how a party stays ballot qualified? Not knowing just how many members will actually vote makes a party vulnerable when there is a non-controversial major election. It would have been better if they had just chosen a fixed percentage of the gubernatorial or presidential general election vote. Presumably this makes it easier for any 3rd party
to remain on the ballot after a Presidential election.
Using a percentage rather than a fixed number was discussed with the legislation’s sponsor. The concern with a fixed percentage was if a percentage of lets say 5 was chosen and a small party (say 1000 members strong) would only need a small number of members (50 people) to vote to stay on the ballot.
Interestingly enough, the Secretary of State’s office was concerned that the 10,000 member threshold disapportionately affects the MGIP. 10,000 is only about 3% of the Reps and Dems, and almost 30% of our party. I think the compromise is 3% but not less than 5000. Perhaps next session…