Although Florida has lenient ballot access laws for parties to become ballot-qualified, the state rules for party documents are severe. Florida election officials have fined the Treasurer of the ballot-qualified Florida Tea Party $1,000 because the Treasurer should have filed his report on January 10, 2012, and instead he filed it on January 11, 2012. Recently the Secretary of State notified him that because the fine has not yet been paid, he will be sued.
This is how the major parties in Florida have decided to fight those 3rd parties which have managed to survive the “purge” of this past year. They are going to make 3rd parties stay on their toes when it comes to complying with election law requirments.
On the other side of the argument, I agree that many of those parties that qualified over the past several years under Florida’s most liberal ballot access laws, were not serious. Many of the leadership of alot of these parties don’t seem to understand that with ballot access rights come responsibilities.
Therefore, I don’t have much sympathy for those parties that got kicked off the ballot for their indifferent attitudes towards rules and regulations. I just hope the “powers that be” don’t go after the more serious 3rd parties. And I trust the leaders of these serious 3rd parties will understand they have an obligation to comply with rules and regulations.
Hmmm. How many Donkey/Elephant election law violations get the purge treatment ???
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V. — wipe out ALL of the party hack stuff.
I agree with Demo Rep. Major parties usually get a pass when it comes to meeting deadlines, etc. but let a 3rd party – or even an independent candidate – make a simple error, and its “off the ballot.” Hypocrisy, hypocrisy.
The fine is for a late campaign finance report, it has nothing specific to do with the Florida Tea Party being a political party.
Florida statutes 106.04(9)(c)?“Any treasurer of a committee may appeal or dispute the fine, based upon unusual circumstances surrounding the failure to file on the designated due date, and may request and is entitled to a hearing before the Florida Elections Commission, which may waive the fine in whole or in part. Any such request must be made within 20 days after receipt of the notice of payment due. The committee shall file the appeal with the commission, with a copy provided to the filing officer.”
Unfortunately, their appeal said “we appeal, we don’t want a hearing”
The amount of the fine was high because it was just before an election.