Here is the latest version of the New York state voter registration form. It has been revised to list the two parties that became ballot-qualified in November 2014, the Women’s Equality Party and the Reform Party (which changed its name recently and had been the Stop Common Core Party). Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.
What hack has gotten the most party hack nominations in the NY fusion system ???
So are there two Reform Parties in New York?
There was only one Reform Party listed on the Registration Form. Why would ask if there was two Reform Parties in New York State?
Because there was the old Perot Reform Party, that I believe still has the naming rights of Reform Party or whatever. http://reformpartyny.org/
This is not the same Reform Party listed on the form.
Fusion voting as in New York is no good because names are placed on the ballot with more than one political party and that causes problems for the vote counters, the voters and the results can never be fair and proportional.
The answer is to simply allow let any candidate proclaim any party/category they wish, to use pure proportional representation (PR) when counting the votes.
The 9th USA Parliament has been doing this for twenty consecutive years and it works perfectly:
http://www.usparliament.org/
There is no mechanism for parties to protect their name on the national level. Fights over whether certain groups have the right to a unique party name must be fought out within each state.
Even if the Reform Psrty started by Ross Perot in 1995 had an active presence in New York state, it would be out of luck (without being a qualified party) because New York state has no laws on party name protection for unqualified parties. Some other states do.
I wish the form was a little more clear about the rules regarding the relationship between party enrollment and primary participation.
This most likely will end up in litigation.
ALL sane States have *assumed name* laws for artificial persons – biz, groups, etc.
i.e. any *common law* assumed name stuff for political parties ???
The party Perot ran on in NY was named the Independence Party. There had been no Reform Party in NY.