For several years, Florida has had a law saying a ballot-qualified party can’t be on the ballot for President unless it is recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a national committee of a national political party, or unless the party submits a petition signed by 1% of the state’s voters. This year, that would be 119,316 signatures.

The purpose of the FEC’s recognition of national committees concerns campaign finance, not ballot access. Federal campaign laws allow individuals to contribute much more money to national committees of political parties than to other campaign committees. Therefore, the FEC has had to decide which national committees of nationally-organized political parties to recognize. However, nothing in the federal campaign laws define the term, so for 42 years the FEC has been deciding which applications for such status to grant. The FEC has never had any objective standards, but roughly speaking, it recognizes a national committee if the party in question has been on the ballot in several states for president and congress. But the rulings are not at all consistent.

In 1975, the FEC approved its first application for national committee status, other than for the Republican and Democratic Parties. In ruling 1975-129, it approved the Libertarian Party. Its presidential nominee had been on the ballot in two states in 1972, and the party had had a single candidate on the ballot for Congress in one state. In 1974 it had had candidates for Congress on the ballot in three states (the FEC won’t count party nominees unless the party name appears on the ballot).

On March 4, 1980, it refused to recognize the Citizens Party, which was running Barry Commoner for President and many candidates for Congress. Ruling 1980-3 said the FEC won’t recognize a national committee until after it has been through a presidential election.

On December 4, 1980, the FEC approved the Socialist Party, in ruling 1980-121. The Socialist Party presidential nominee had been on the ballot in nine states. The party had congressional candidates on the ballot in two states, Iowa and New Jersey. There were only three congressional candidates. The ruling did not mention how many congressional candidates the party had run.

On November 20, 1980, the FEC denied status to the National Unity Party, which John Anderson was organizing, even though Anderson had polled 6.6% for President. The ruling, 1980-131, said the National Unity Party did not have any congressional candidates.

On November 18, 1996, the FEC denied status to the Green Party, ruling 1996-35, even though its presidential nominee, Ralph Nader, had been on the ballot in 23 states and had congressional candidates in Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island. The party received 12.6% for U.S. Senate in Alaska and polled 685,040 votes for President.

It is therefore obvious that FEC recognition as a national committee is not objective, and is not connected to the level of popular support for the party.