December 31, 2013, was the deadline for Americans Elect to increase its registration to one-fifteenth of 1%, if it wanted to avoid being removed from the California ballot. Leaders of Americans Elect were aware of this deadline, but took no action to increase the party’s registration, so the party is now disqualified. The official announcement won’t be until the Report of Registration is complete, but it is obvious from partial data from certain counties that Americans Elect has only approximately 5,000 registrants or fewer, and it needs approximately 12,000 to remain on the ballot.

The only other parties that were ever removed from the California ballot on the grounds that they failed to have registration of one-fifteenth of 1% of the state total, at the beginning of an election year, were the Communist Party in early 1944, and the Prohibition Party in early 1964. The one-fifteenth of 1% registration test is in addition to the vote test that is imposed in November of midterm years. The legislature added the one-fifteenth of 1% registration test in 1943, for the purpose of removing the Communist Party from the ballot. The party kept passing the vote test and the legislature wanted to eliminate it, so added that second test.