Hearings have been set for the two Minnesota bills that change the definition of a political party, from a group that got 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections, to 10%.
The Senate bill, SF 1827, will be heard Tuesday, March 14, at 3 p.m.
The House bill, HF 2802, will be heard Friday, March 17, at 8:30 a.m.
The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%, so Minnesota is already more difficult than the median state. Minnesota’s existing definition of a qualified party is so tough that Minnesota is one of only six states in which the Libertarian Party has never been a qualified party. The others are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia. Also the Libertarian Party has only been a ballot-qualified party in Connecticut for some offices but not others; and in Georgia and Illinois it has only been a qualified party for statewide offices but not most district offices.
It is ironic that this year, it is the states with difficult ballot access already that are threatening to make it even harder. Besides Minnesota, other examples are New Mexico and Texas.
That’s right. Make ballot access harder or impossible. MAKE SURE YOUR STATE COMES IN FIRST PLACE FOR TERRIBLE BALLOT ACCESS. Your state doesn’t want the booby prize. Let’s make America a two-party tyranny. Geez!
Minnesota is essentially a one party state: communism.