On April 29, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed AB 446 unanimously. It reduces the petition to recognize a new or previously unqualified party from 10% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 3%. While this sounds like a huge improvement, the procedure to create a new party by petition is almost never used, because there is an alternate procedure (to persuade voters equal to .33% of the registration to register into the party).
If a new party wants to qualify for 2022 by using the petition method, and this bill is signed into law, the requirement would be 373,928 signatures, due in January 2022. Such a petition can begin to circulate at any time. In the entire history of ballot access laws in the United States, there is no instance when a party overcame a requirement greater than 275,970 signatures, except for the Americans Elect petition in 2011 in California, which overcame a requirement of 1,030,040. That drive was funded by Peter Ackerman, a multi-millionaire.
AB 446 also somewhat eases the procedure for a new party to qualify by obtaining registrations. It allows a group to carry out a registration drive using a party name that another past party had also used. Thus, if someone wanted to qualify a party named “Reform Party” in California in the future, it could do so, notwithstanding that the Reform Party under previous officers had existed 1995-2002.
Getting people to agree to register to vote under the name of a minor party, particularly one they have never heard of, is not easy. It is actually easier to get them to sign a petition for it than it is to get them to register to vote under that party’s name.
ONLY equal nom pets for each office.
NOOO x pct of prior votes.
NOOO z registered voters.
NOOO primaries.
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PR
APPV
TOTSOP
A little quick math: 12,464,235 votes cast in 2018 Gubernatorial election: 3% is how the 373,928 figure for signatures is derived.
To qualify by registering voters is 40,721. We NEED a new viable third party. Actually seems like an opportune time: 1) A mid-term Gubernatorial election 2) The precedent set by judges in 2020, lowering qualifying numbers due to Covid. Not to mention the political reasons, i.e. the impending collapse of the Republican party.
What makes you think there’s an impending collapse?