The Green Party of New Mexico has started circulating its petition to get itself back on the ballot, and it has 500 signatures already. The party needs 4,151 signatures by April 1.
If New Mexico had a rational election law to determine which parties are on the ballot automatically, that law would already recognize the Green Party. In 2008 the Green Party carried Santa Fe County and Los Alamos County for its candidate for Public Regulation Commission, Rick Lass. Lass polled 43.69% for this partisan race. His vote total, 77,006 votes, was more than 5% of the total vote cast in the entire state. The law defines “major party” to be a group that polled for any of its candidates, a number of votes greater than 5% of the entire vote in the state. The law also requires a “major party” to have registration of at least one-third of 1%, and the Green Party has enough registered members to meet that test as well.
The catch is that before a group can be a “major party”, it must be a “political party”, and a “political party” must have polled one-half of 1% for either President or Governor at either of the last two elections. The Green Party didn’t have a gubernatorial candidate in 2006, and Cynthia McKinney didn’t poll as much as one-half of 1% in 2008.
Parties on the ballot now in New Mexico, besides the two major parties, are the Independent Party and the Constitution Party. The Independent Party is on because it polled over one-half of 1% for president in 2008. The Constitution Party is on because it petitioned in 2008 and parties that petition get ballot status for the next two elections. The Libertarian Party is currently petitioning in New Mexico also.
One hopes the Independent and Green Parties would join together there.
Nader was the Green Party candidate in 2000.
Carol Miller was the leading Green Party congressional candidate at least twice in New Mexico.
Both Nader and Miller were then Indy candidates.
Thanks for story.
How is it rational to base statewide party recognition on electoral performance for a district office? The next election for the PRC will be contested in different districts. Would you advocate then that the Green Party should lose its ballot access because it was weaker in another district, or didn’t even have a candidate?
Los Alamos County had the 17th highest turnout of any of New Mexico 33 counties, so I don’t see what bearing that has on anything. And Santa Fe County is split between two PRC districts, so it can’t be unequivocally said that Lass carried that county. He lost in the other 11 counties (or parts thereof) in the district.
Under a Top 2 Open Primary system, Lass or any Green candidate could simply qualify under their own merits. It can’t be that high of a standard since there were 6 candidates in the Democratic primary for the seat.
Any minor party that can get 43.69% for a partisan office that covers one-fifth of a state, belongs on the ballot in that state. The only minor parties that should be removed from the ballot are parties that have no real support at all. When a minor party manages to carry two counties even though the state deprived it of a straight-ticket device (while giving such a device to the Democrats and Republicans).
The whole purpose of ballots is to facilitate voters voting for whom they wish to vote. One might as well say the Texas Democrats should be removed from the ballot because they haven’t elected the Governor in 20 years, as to say the New Mexico Greens should be removed from the ballot. The act of removing such a party is thoughtless, mindless, functionless.
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Separate is NOT equal.
Each election is NEW and has ZERO to do with any prior election.
— 2 points that the IRRATIONAL party hack Supremes and armies of MORON lawyers can NOT detect in their brain dead heads.
What complicates further this NM mess is that certain offices and districts are understood to be off limits to the general public which results in a machine within a machine. The PRC is the epitome of this dynamic but hardly the only instance so how can you base ballot access on such a system, even at the gubernatorial level and be fair to all in the state? The district the first Green ran in is up again- this was the race that the Dem refused to even give interviews or answer questions/polls for and still won because of ignorance, provincialism, and straight party voting.
#3 Los Alamos County has fewer people than Inyo County. The second PRC district does not include all of Santa Fe County. You haven’t explained what denominator you used for total votes in the state.
Rick Lass received 304 times as many votes as Cynthia McKinney did in Los Alamos County. Do you think having the straight ticket device would have helped Lass that much? He probably would have done better running as an independent.
Harris County has about 1/6 of the population of Texas. There are 65 partisan countywide offices on the ballot this year. Are you seriously suggesting that if one of the major parties did not contest one of those offices, and the other party nominated a flawed candidate, while a 3rd party candidate contested the race and did reasonably well, that the party should have statewide ballot access?
It simply is not rational to have access to the ballot by either candidates or voters based on political party. Under a Top 2 system, Lass and the 6 Democrats would have filed as individuals. The top 2 from the primary would have advanced to the general election.
If I might insert a fact, the PRC race has in the past counted for Green major party status. That was when Attorney General (now Senator) Tom Udall interpreted the law correctly.
NM election law is a mess; unfair, full of contradictions. But it serves the unDemocrat machine a long, long life of dominance in the Legislature.
#8
In 1994, the Green Party candidate for governor received 10.26% of the vote. So the GP would have been a qualified party. It would also have been a major party.
In 1996, the Green Party candidate for president received 2.38% of the vote. So the GP would have been a qualified party.
In 1998, the Green Party did not have a candidate for governor. The GP would have been a qualified party on the basis it did not have a gubernatorial candidate (so the 1/2% criteria does not apply) but it did have at least one candidate on the ballot in 1996 or 1998.
The PRC did not exist until the 1998 elections, when all 5 district candidates were elected for the first time. Tom Udall was elected to Congress in 1998, so it is fairly unlikely that he issued any attorney general opinions based on the result of the 1998 election.
It is possible that Tom Udall did issue an opinion based on the 1996 election and the Corporation Commission race where the Green Party candidate received 11% of the vote. However, the Corporation Commissioner was elected statewide, and the Green Party was a qualified party based on the presidential race. The online AG opinions only go back to 1999.
Under a Top 2 Open Primary all candidates qualify based individually. The problem in New Mexico and elsewhere is that most candidates qualify on the basis of party. This provides an incentive to make it as hard as possible for other parties to qualify, and to also eliminate competition within the party.
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