Maine Representative Ben Chipman (I-Portland) has introduced LD 142, to remove the requirement that a qualified party, or a group attempting to qualify as a political party, must hold a municipal caucus in at least one town in each county in the state. Ballot access requirements that require support from each county in a state, or even support from any particular number of counties, have been held unconstitutional. Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, all had ballot access requirements in the past that required support from a certain number of counties, but none of those laws exist any longer. Nebraska still has a county distribution requirement for non-presidential statewide independent candidates, passed in 2007, but that law is under attack in U.S. District Court. Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for petitions for a new party was held unconstitutional in 1984.
Maine has 16 counties, ranging in population from 17,000 (Piscataquis County) to 278,000 (Cumberland County).
See Moore v. Ogivie 1969 — one of the very few SCOTUS cases that is a bit equal and rational.
Moore was cited in Bush v. Gore 2000
Perhaps some hope even for the New Age SCOTUS party hacks in a future case ???
typo Ogilvie ?
will check.
Although there is a considerable difference in population between counties, the practical effect of the law is to require 16 people in 16 different places, more or less evenly distributed across the state to hold a political party meeting. (caucus)
I am curious what level of organization, if any, do people think is reasonable to require, to become a recognized political party.
The caucuses are not the only requirements. The petition to create a new party is so difficult, it has existed since 1976 and has only been used once, by the Reform Party in 1996.
# 3 How many folks said or wrote something before 4 July 1776 to cause the American Revolution to happen ???
i.e. who was THE first person ???
Responding to Carl Pease, for small parties there is considerable uneven distribution of support. In some of the sparse counties here in Maine, it is difficult to find someone who is willing and able to “call a caucus” which has several specific requirements and must be met within a certain time frame, usually dead of winter! Then, if no one comes to the caucus, the entire party eligibility can go down the drain! A newly enacted requirement (to maintain ballot access) is that 10,000 people registered in the party actually vote in a statewide election. Greens have accomplished that. Another is that a candidate for president or governor gets 5% of the vote, and Greens have generally done that. As for starting a new party, it seems reasonable to have a reasonable quota of signatures on a petition asking that athe party be recognized. the key word is “reasonable.”