There have been many outlandish petition deadlines for newly qualifying parties, but the most extreme such deadline that ever existed is the Arkansas deadline. In presidential election years, the petition is due in September of the odd year before the election. New parties in Arkansas nominate by convention, not by primary, so there is no election-administration reason for such an absurd deadline.
Arkansas has lost lawsuits against early petition deadlines in the past. In 1977, when the deadline was April, it was struck down. The legislature moved it to May. But then in 1987 it moved the deadline to January. That was struck down in a Reform Party case in 1996, and the legislature moved it to May. But in 2013 it moved the deadline to 60 days before the filing period for candidates running in a party primary. The primary was in May in 2014, so the deadline automatically became December of the year before the election, worse than it had ever been before.
In 2015 the legislature moved the primary from May to March (for presidential election years only), so that automatically moved the petition deadline to September of the year before the election, in presidential years.
Given U.S. history, in which important new parties were organized in the election year and participated in that year’s election, it is difficult to understand the philosophy of Arkansas legislators. For instance, the Republican Party was formed on July 6, 1854, and went on to win a plurality in the U.S. House in the autumn 1854 elections.
The new deadline hasn’t yet been challenged in court, because the only party that has attempted to qualify in Arkansas in the last three elections has been the Libertarian Party, and it always got the petition done in the middle of the odd year before the election year, so it couldn’t claim that the deadline injured it. But if some other party attempts to get on the ballot in Arkansas in 2024, such a party would have standing and would win a lawsuit against the September 2023 deadline. If it were interested in the 2022 election, it could also win a lawsuit against the December deadline.
When will deadlines be the day after the prior general election day ???
AR gerrymander hacks super-paranoid or what ???
A September of an odd year deadline for an even year general election is insane.
Welcome Libertarians
By James Ogle [One], volunteer vote counter
5-22-2021
Welcome Libertarians!
Ralph Nader gave the United Coalition USA permission to be on our ballot before April 1st in 1995 before he was a candidate for US President and he announced less than six months later.
The Green Party bosses in California had been harassing the team since 1992 when we formed the United Coalition by running a slate with one each of Green, Environmentalist, Peace and Freedom and Democratic, for the Santa Cruz City Council election of 1992.
The Environmentalist Party formed in Pacific Grove America 1983 and Clint ran against us in 1986 and I was one with the Republican, Tea and Environmentalist Party.
Our team is the same and we’ve grown despite the same Green Party harrassers of Santa Clara cutting deals with a programmer to delete our work after they launched off my initials joogle.
The search engine launched off my ID and the project around October of 1997 and of course we were flattered.
Good luck trying to use pure proportional representation (PPR) to the Libertarian Party because we brought it in 1992, and we know how hard it is fighting single-winner one-party dictators, especially since the search engine is using a bogus “click the box” approval voting (AppV) system.
Those same dictators and new ones brought by Facebook are more than happy to delete and divide, but our seats are still open, and we welcome the opportunity for you to join the team.
Our doors are always open to everyone!
Try to knock harder when you thought we didn’t welcome you fast enough!
We’re busy in process of electing 500+ names and expecting 2000+ onto the Los Angeles and Maricopa County Mini-states by August 5th 2021.
You may bring your caucus in 2021 as a list of names on paper ballots!
http://Www.allpartysystem.com/schedule-2021.php
* * *
Would Love to Hear
By CEO Buck Rogers [Conservative]
5-22-2021
I never want to be stagnant.
I never want to be stuck.
I never want to wonder what if?
I never want to have regrets.
I never want to wonder, if I missed out on the next opportunity? So, I say yes to the next opportunity.
I never want to give up on my dreams.
I want to reach my goals.
I want to reach my potential.
I want to live my destiny… Whatever it is.
I have let go of what of my life should be and I am embracing, whatever comes my way.
There are many decisions and choices to be made in life.
For me, I choose to not be stagnant.
I will move continuously.
What about you?
Would love to hear.
* * *
Who let Ogle out of his room at the asylum?
Dubin (page 174) shows 74 Democrats, 57 Whigs, 51 Americans, and 45 others.
If S2093 goes into effect in Texas, if a new party wished to contest congressional, legislative, and statewide executive offices, and refused to pay the poll tax, they would have to collect around 140,000 signatures with very strict distribution requirements by December. They would then have to collect close to 100,000 signatures by May to qualify the party. None of the signatures from the previous year would count.
Jim, thanks for that detail about SB 2093. As to the composition of the new congress, the Clerk of the US House says the 34th congress had, in the House, 108 Republicans, 83 Democrats, and 43 other parties. See Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1990, page 50. Kenneth Martis’ The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the US Congress 1789-1989 says it was 100 “Opposition”, 83 Democrats, 51 Americans. You mention Dubin, page 174, but he writes on that page that his data “reflects the party affiliation of the members at the time each was elected, but after the debate over and passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which became law on May 30, 1854, these labels had little real meaning. By the time the 34th congress convened, many elected to it had changed their party affiliation.”
As long as it helps the Republican Party it’s good.
The new party petition deadline for 2022 general election cycle in Arkansas is December 24, 2021. It is not in September of 2021–see Ark. Code Ann. sections 7-7-205(a)(2), 7-7-205(a)(4)(B), 7-7-203)c)(1)(A), 7-7-205(a)(6). In the next presidential election cycle in Arkansas the petition deadline will be September 7, 2023. The deadline is challenged in the current court case along with the petition period and signature requirement.
Redonkulous.
There should not be any odd year deadline for minor parties for even year elections.
It’s like living in a banana republic.
IT is an ANTI-Democracy minority rule gerrymander republic – since 4 July 1776.
State gerrymander regimes
USA gerrymander regime – 3 parts – H Reps, Senate, EC
Media = brain dead math stupid beyond belief.
1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4.
—-
PR
APPV
TOTSOP
I don’t see a problem here.
The deadline for when a candidate or party can appear on the ballot is when the voter cast his ballot. No one should have the power to censor that voter’s choices and decisions in advance of election day.
@RW,
All were elected after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. If someone ran for re-election as a Whig 3 months later, but when the 34th Congress met 16 months after that, they sat with the Republicans, it doesn’t mean they were elected as a Republican.
That would be like claiming Justin Amash was elected as a Libertarian.
How many of the 1854 KS Act gerrymander hacks lived to see the 13-14-15 Amdts and the 750,000 DEAD in 1861-1866 ???
D Frank Robinson, if only all voters were capable of remembering their candidate names and printing them legibly and correctly, or printing them out and bringing them in. Or for that matter researching a bunch of candidates in every race. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.