Seven Democratic Representatives in Minnesota have introduced HF 2802. It changes the definition of a qualified party from one that polled 5% at either of the last two elections for a statewide office, to one that polled 10%. It would take effect before the 2024 election if it passed.
The bill is identical to SF 1827, introduced earlier by Senator Jim Carlson. The House authors are Representatives Luke Frederick, Mike Freiberg, Emma Greenman, Nathan Coulter, Zack Stephenson, Kristi Pursell, and Esther Agbaje.
The Democratic legislators are introducing this bill in order to eliminate the ballot-qualified Legal Marijuana Now Party. In Minnesota, all qualified parties nominate by open primary. There have been insincere candidates filing for the primary of the Legal Marijuana Now Party, not because they care about marijuana legalization, but in order to injure the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee. The solution for this problem is a bill that would allow small qualified parties to nominate by convention, to give such parties more control over which races they contest, and whom to choose.
I will send out emails.
I working on a letter to the fargo/moorhead forum newspaper too
Any party that tries to address the real or perceived issue of vote splitting by trying to de facto ban third party and Independent candidates instead of implementing Ranked Choice Voting, or other policies that are friendly to free and fair elections, deserves to lose support. The “Democratic” Party is a masterclass in Orwellian doublespeak.
None of that is needed. I’ve described a much simpler and more logical system of government and elections. Very few counterarguments I’ve received anywhere, including here.