On June 26, the Maine House passed LD 769 by 104-35. It eases the definition of a qualified party. Current law says it is a group that has 5,000 registrants (if it is a new party), but if it has been on the ballot at least four years then it must have 10,000 registrants.
The bill makes the definition simpler. It says a qualified party is one with 5,000 registrants, whether it is new or old.
June 28 Update: According to an office of the Maine legislature, this legislation will be considered by the Maine Senate sometime yet this year, at a currently unknown date.
Ok, looks like the bill made it easier for third parties to help keep their ballot access. Hopefully we get more of that across the country
Yeah, 5,000 is a reasonable number to register an entire political party
EQUAL BALLOT ACCESS FOR PARTISAN OFFICES IN HOW MANY STATES ???
HOW MANY DAILY OBEY OR DIE COMMAND ORDERS FROM DNC/RNC TO WIPE OUT BALLOT ACCESS FOR ALL MINOR PARTIES AND INDEES — REGARDLESS OF 14-1 EP CL ???
Hallelujah!
The total number matters, but so does the percentage of voters (politically speaking, not legally speaking).
I think some states have a fixed percentage of how many votes were cast in some recent election (like for governor). Maine had about 677,000 votes for governor in 2022. 5,000 is 0.7%. 10,000 is 1.5%. Compare that to other states… at least the ones that do party registration.
There is no constitutional standard for qualifying political parties. Individuals are qualified not collective entities. Voters indicate any individual they believe is qualified to hold office in free and fair elections – when they can get them. Qualification and disqualification of collectivities is fascism.
Maine requires 25 signatures of enrolled party members to run for state representative. There are 150 districts in Maine. Thus if there are 5000 enrolled members of the Mainiac Party, the average district will have 33 enrolled members.
To run unopposed in the primary a candidate would need 25 of the 33 enrolled voters to qualify for the primary. Some of these voters will have died, moved, or realize that it was a mistake to enroll or simply don’t like the particular candidate.
All of this complexity is unnecessary. One party precinct captain per precinct, available several months before election for public questions, and present in the voting hall on election night, should be sufficient for party election access.