On March 9, the New Hampshire State Senate passed SB 114. It outlaws fusion, and says a general election candidate can only receive the nomination of one party. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
On March 9, the New Hampshire State Senate passed SB 114. It outlaws fusion, and says a general election candidate can only receive the nomination of one party. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
Hopefully, if this ever becomes law in New Hampshire, New York State will follow suit. Fusion does only two things. The first is it lets the two main parties crowd the ballot so that the legitimate third parties are listed where they are hard to find. The second is that it creates psuedo parties that are only in existence to support the two main parties, or are led by people on an ego trip to serve their own needs.
Spreading fusion is a key Libertarian proposal and here a pre-emptive strike against the rising pro-libertarian tide there. http://ballot-access.org/2017/03/09/new-hampshire-senate-passes-bill-that-outlaws-fusion/ Shared @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/736882696414329/ Poll Data group…
Steve…. what it does is let third-parties support one of the two major parties candidates so they can fill in the gaps in their slate of candidates, and, as a result, run a full slate of candidates on their ballot line; thereby increasing brand recognition, so they can, eventually, in turn run a full slate of their own candidates.
This is the plan for a new party I’m starting for 2018. We’ll likely cross-endorse most of the Libertarian ballot line along with the Working Families Party and Independence Party, and run our own candidates.
I’m not for the outlawing of fusion, I’d just rather the LP didn’t do it, or at least that we didn’t cross nominate duopoly candidates.
Steve – related to your second point, fusion also gives an incentive for the major parties to hijack the legitimate minor parties.
AMCCarrick – If you have that much in common with another party that you can cross endorse their candidates, then maybe your party is just a duplicate of that party and there is no need for you to exist. I have personally seen in New York how the legitimate parties are pushed down to the bottom of the ballot, and sometimes even out of the main column of candidates, because these pseudo parties take all of the top spots. A candidate only needs to be listed once on the ballot. Any more times and it’s just duplicative which serves the voting public no useful purpose.
Jim – Exactly. Another good reason to eliminate it.