Two Oregon Democratic Representatives have introduced HB 3297. It would change Oregon ballots, for candidates who have the nomination of more than one party. Under current law, when a candidate is the nominee of more than one party, that candidate is only listed once on the general election ballot. The candidate’s name is followed by the names of all parties that have nominated him or her.
The bill would provide that when a candidate has the nomination of more than one party, his or her name would be listed separately for each party. This would give general election voters a choice of which party to support. This type of fusion is referred to as “disaggregated fusion.” States that use disaggregated fusion already are New York, Connecticut, and South Carolina.
The bill’s sponsors are Peter Buckley of Ashland, and Barbara Smith Warner of Portland. The Working Families Party asked for this bill.
It seems the bill would allow for filing all votes received as multiple votes for same candidate, going automatically to the major party label if among those indicated.
Why be helpful so unnecessarily WF party?
Disaggregated fusion is, otherwise, a great thing.
Who or what is being elected —
The candidate or the robot party hack name ???
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P.R. (in which party hack names would actually mean something — i.e. party RESPONSIBILITY for LAWS) and nonpartisan App.V.
If this bill passes, the Working Families Party can stay on the ballot by polling 1% of the vote under its own line for any statewide office. Currently the Working Families Party generally prefers to cross-nominate the Democratic nominee, but when that happens, the WFP doesn’t get credit for passing the vote test. The party therefore must constantly keep its registration above one-half of 1% (the alternate way a party stays on the ballot in Oregon).
The WFP would rather not have many registered members, because it wants its people to be registered Demccrats so they can vote for the Democrat in the primary who best represents what the party wants. So if this bill passes, the WFP can get what it wants for that variable.
Richard:
In California, with Prop. 14 changing the rules can a candidate still run on 2 or more party lines for President in California like this bill will do for Oregon?
In California, fusion for president is still permitted, although it hasn’t been used since 1940, when Wendell Willkie was the nominee of both the Townsend Party and the Republican Party. Before that, in 1928, Herbert Hoover was the nominee of both the Republican and Prohibition Parties.
Prop. 14 didn’t change anything relating to president.