The Delaware House passed HB 245 unanimously back on June 29, 2009. It will soon receive a hearing in the Senate Insurance and Elections Committee. Among other things, it increases the number of registered voters to qualify as a political party from approximately 300 registered members, to approximately 600.
Specifically, the bill changes the percentage of registered voters from one-twentieth of 1% of the state total, to one-tenth of 1% of the state total.
In 2008, Delaware had 7 qualified minor parties, and they had this number of registered voters just prior to the general election: Independent Party 1,308; Libertarian 756; Working Families 589; Green 587; Blue Enigma 330; Socialist Workers 310; Constitution 309.
Delaware does not post the number of registered voters for the qualified minor parties on its webpage, and today is a holiday and the State Election office is closed, so it isn’t possible to know how many registrants each party now has.
The bill was suggested by the State Election Commissioner. The sponsors are three Democrats: Senator George Bunting of Bethany Beach, Rep. Earl Jacques of Newark, and Rep. Hazel Plant of Wilmington. The bill makes many other election law changes. It also requires that qualified minor parties nominate via convention, and not just with a meeting of the state executive committee. In 2008 the Independent Party of Delaware had nominated Ralph Nader and its nominees for other office with a state executive committee meeting. Someone had challenged the Independent Party’s nomination procedure, but a court said there is nothing in the law to forbid using a committee meeting instead of a convention to nominate candidates.
CORRECTION:
re: HB 245
Currently, the Delaware Election Code requires minor parties to nominate by convention. HB 245 essentially imposes an August 1 convention deadline prior to the August 15 nomination certification filing deadline and a requirement to file an additional state form.
With respect to the historical facts of the matter :
1) Ralph Nader was, in fact, duly nominated at the IPoD State Convention in August, 2008 (as were other candidates). The existing statute, however, does not define or specify what process or procedure constitutes a nominating convention — it only states that minor parties shall certify candidates nominated by convention. Ergo, administration of nominating conventions and formulation of internal rules is legally left to the respective political parties.
2) The Delaware Elections Commission considered requiring parties to certify nomination of candidates on state DEC forms after the August, 2007 unilateral
“nomination” and defective filing of a Lt. Governor candidate on the part of a former State Chairman. The DEC initially accepted the Certificate of Nomination, but invalidated it after the nomination was challenged (pursuant to 15 Del.C. §3308) by the State Secretary and State Executive Committee on the grounds that a nominating convention had not been held and the State Secretary had not signed the original certificate of nomination as legally required under section 3301(2).
3) The Court of Chancery upheld the rights of political parties to make internal rules and execute operating procedures free of state regulation in the above-mentioned case. The allegations in the plaintiff’s initial complaint were moot as the nominating convention was in fact, legally and physically held before process was served. Subsequent revisions of the complaint hinged upon subjective definitions of a political convention and attempted to impose other irrelevant demands for de facto state control of a political party, clearly rejected by the court. The litigation was also a unilateral attempt to selectively nullify the IPoD’s gubernatorial nomination and did not challenge the nomination other candidates.
The proposed HB 245 raises constitutional equal protection questions. The increased voter registration requirements will effectively eliminate 5 out of 7 of Delaware’s minor political parties if imposed ex post facto according to the numbers cited in the 1/18/10 Ballot Access News report.
Wolfgang von Baumgart,
State Chairman,
Independent Party of Delaware
(302) 945-2646
e-mail: ipodosc@yahoo.com 1/21/10
Independent Party of Delaware
Office of the State Chairman
re: HB 245’s Impact on Minor Parties
According to HB 245, a party’s ballot status will be calculated from the 1/10 % of statewide totals on August 24 of each election year.
Using the latest Delaware Elections Commission minor party (with ballot status) registration totals*, the situation appears as follows:
Party Total [ Comment ]
________________________________________________________
Independent Party of Delaware 1714
Libertarian 804 (intact)
—————————————-
Green 561
Working Families 505 (challenged)
—————————————-
Blue Enigma 308
Constitution 288
Socialist Workers 276 (endangered)
—————————————-
December,2009 Year-end Total Registration
*source: Delaware Election Commission
________________________________________________________
Accordingly, 3 out of 7 minor parties will lose ballot status if HB 245 is enacted.
The IPoD remains committed to free ballot access in the First State.
Wolfgang von Baumgart,
State Chairman,
Independent Party of Delaware
(302) 945-2646
ipodosc@yahoo.com