Florida now recognizes the Pirate Party is a ballot-qualified party, with its own primary. This is the first state in which the Pirate Party has qualified for the ballot.
Florida now recognizes the Pirate Party is a ballot-qualified party, with its own primary. This is the first state in which the Pirate Party has qualified for the ballot.
U.S.A. Const Art. I, Sec. 8 part
The Congress shall have power ***
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, ***
[a MAJOR crime problem in the late 1700s]
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Any pirates and piracy in the Pirate Party – in this New Age of stranger and stranger stuff ???
Demo Rep, you obviously don’t know what the Pirate Party is about. The “pirates” are striving for reforms on copyright and patent laws and wants to entirely transform how information is shared on the Internet. The movement’s main concerns are specifically digital intellectual property and privacy laws, NOT piracy on the high seas.
How about the Copyright/Patent Party ???
How many zillions of voters will take a microsecond to look at any Pirate Party website ???
I’d rather have it this way than not, but I am afraid the easiness of qualifying a 3rd party in Florida is going to have a negative backlash one day. Richard is probably the expert on this, but I’d guess there are over 50 different 3rd parties registered with the Secretary of State – maybe more. Since the Secretary of State’s office has to take these 3rd party filings seriously, this no doubt creates alot of extra paperwork for their staff. I think one person alone there actually registered over a dozen parties.
One day the SOS office is going to get tired of these trival non-serious 3rd parties taking up their time, and despite the state constitutional amendment of some dozen years or so ago, allowing such linency, the legislature will find a way to clamp down on this nonsense. Unfortunately the serious 3rd parties may have to suffer also.
You hate to see all kinds of regulations on parties in an effort to keep them off the ballot. I’m sure some states do require you ran a certain number of candidates to retain ballot status, so that the party is not just something filed on paper.
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To RJ says: Yes, the Legislature may pass a law which says if a party does not have a candidate for any office for two or more election cycles, it loses its’ recognition by the SOS. It also could require such parties to demonstrate their seriousness by putting up a bond of some type, but as long as it applies to the major parties (which they could easily do) it should not violate the amendment of several years ago which placed all parties on a level playing field.
See the zillion dubious parties in U.K. general elections for MPs — Elvis Party, Monster Looney Party, etc. etc.
Keeps the ballot printers busy.