On November 29, the Socialist Party asked the Michigan Supreme Court to hear its ballot access case, Socialist Party of Michigan v Secretary of State, 142163.  The lawsuit challenges Michigan law for requiring almost twice as many signatures for a previously unqualified party to get on the ballot, as the number of votes for an already-established party to remain on the ballot.  The Court will ponder whether to hear the case at its December 21 conference.

The formula is that the petition to get on the ballot requires 1% of the total vote cast for Governor, whereas the vote test for a party to remain on is 1% of the winning candidate’s vote for Secretary of State.  Because, generally, the winning candidate for Secretary of State only gets slightly more than half the vote (and occasionally gets less than half the vote), this means the number of signatures for the Socialist Party is approximately twice the number of votes needed for the old parties to remain on.  In Williams v Rhodes in 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court said one reason it was striking down the Ohio ballot access laws was that the petition to get on (15% of the last gubernatorial vote) was more than the vote test for an old party to remain on (10% of the vote for Governor).

The Michigan Socialist Party also argues that it should be recognized because some of its member-nominees were on the ballot recently and received the minimum necessary number of votes.  The problem with that is that they were on the ballot as Green Party nominees, not Socialist Party nominees.

The Socialist Party hasn’t been on the Michigan ballot since 1948.  The last time any party with the word “socialist” in its name was 1996, when the Socialist Equality Party was on the Michigan ballot, along with the Workers World Party.