The presumptive Democratic Party nominee for vice-president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has a record of hostility toward minor parties and the voters who want to vote for minor parties. On May 23, 2023, he signed HF 1830. It altered the Minnesota definition of a qualified party from a group that polled 5% at either of the last elections, to one that polled 8% at either of the last two elections.
That made Minnesota the fifth-most difficult state in the nation for a minor party to retain its spot on the ballot. The only states with a worse vote test for party status are Alabama (20%), Virginia (10%), and New Jersey (10%). Also Pennsylvania’s registration test of 15% is worse than any other state’s test.
The Democratic majority in Minnesota wrote SF 1830 in order to eliminate the Legal Marijuana Now Party from the ballot. After it was pointed out to them that it violates constitutional due process to make the definition of a party effective immediately, the bill was amended to not apply until 2026. But then this year the Democratic Party challenged the status of the Legal Marijuana Now Party in state court, and the State Supreme Court removed it, on the grounds that it had the wrong type of structure.
HB 1830 also says votes for declared write-in candidates will no longer be counted, in most cases.
None of the other Democratic politicians who had been under consideration for the vice-presidential nomination are known to have ever harmed ballot access in their own state.
FALSE WALZ —
ONE MORE COMMIE MONARCH
NOT COUNTING WI = 14-2 AMDT VIOLATION
We cannot let minor parties jeopardize Democracy. Republicanism, yes, but not Democracy.
Walz is the worst VP pick Harris could have made in so many different ways.
“HB 1830 also says votes for declared write-in candidates will no longer be counted, in most cases.”
🤬
The real problem is that the Minnesota Constitution permits bundling so much in a single bill. The governor should veto the budget over an obscure provision that almost nobody is aware of?
I think Bill Redpath is misinterpreting the write-in provisions.
It permits cities to require making a declaration of write-in candidacy 7 days before an election OR not counting write-in votes if the total number is less than the last place candidate. This is “most cases”, only if there are random votes for Mickey Moose that have to be tallied. If Mr. Moose wants to be elected he only has to campaign a bit harder or file a declaration of write-in candidacy.
Wisconsin will always be counted!
Governor Walz could have asked Democratic legislative leaders not to include the provision in that bill, and surely they would have listened to him. It got a fair amount of publicity. Former Governor Jesse Ventura had testified against the bill in committee, and that got news stories.
Kamala Harris will be best USA President ever!
@RW,
You may have mixed up two bills. SB 1827 would have changed the definition of a political party. Jesse Ventura did testify on that bill on March 14, 2023. You also testified by Zoom on that bill.
HB 1830 started out as a two page bill, and ended up 300 pages long and 444 sections. I could not find anything in committee minutes about Ventura testifying. Do you recall which committee and which date.
The write-in provisions in HB 1830 are actually quite innocuous. School districts, library districts, etc. can pass a resolution that if the total number of write-in votes is less than the votes for the last placed candidate, they don’t have to be tallied. If there is an actual write-in campaign, it is quite likely that the candidate could receive more votes than another candidate. If not, that candidate could not be elected.
In cities, the city has an option of either requiring a declaration of candidacy before the election, or not tallying write-in votes if the number of write-ins is less than the last placed candidate.
Minnesota already requires a declaration of write-in candidacy for federal, state, and county offices. That was unchanged.
@RW,
HB 1830 also had a provision that increased the threshold to 8%. It is quite unlikely that any governor is going to veto a 300-page long budget bill because of that provision.
If I am willing to spend/waste my vote on Mickey Mouse, then I want it to show up on official public records, gosh darn it.
Walz should be in prison.
@Nuña
In 2021, the mayor of the city of Buffalo, New York won re-election as a write-in candidate. He was denied a place on the ballot due to a technicality – I don’t remember what it was.
In 2024, Joe Biden won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate. There was some inside-party reason for this… something to do with New Hampshire changing the date of the primary?
In 2017, a state house candidate in Pennsylvania won as a write-in in a special election. If I remember correctly, the expected winner was disqualified and couldn’t be replaced, so another candidate from that party stepped in as a write-in.
Please set aside your opinion of these particular candidates. In these three cases, counting write-in votes was a failsafe for problems caused by over-regulation.
@Adam Cerini
I think that’s inline with what I’m saying(?), which is that write-in votes should always be counted, recorded and published – even if they are for an ineligible, dead or non-existent person/entity, because they can serve as a type of protest vote that is more explicit than blank or spoilt ballots.
Especially when NOTA is not a valid option – which it really should always be – it is important to let people express that they are willing to vote but not for any of the candidates on the ballot (nor for anyone who officially qualified as a write-in candidate).
Protest votes, such as crossing out the name of candidates running unopposed, were very popular during and following the collapse of Soviet Union (for example in Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Abkhazia and Ossetia) exactly because they were officially counted, recorded and published, so that they could sometimes be used to great effect against unopposed candidates.
It’s only a bad record to the weirdos and scumbags who vote for fringe parties and who are readers of this website. They are happily irrelevant in American politics and tend to get caught up in their own picayune internecine disputes and play no role in the country’s history.
We are all looking forward to presidency of the Kamala Harris!
@AC,
The Minnesota statute would have no effect on those elections. Bill Redpath misunderstood that provision of HB 1830 (2023).
Write-in votes are always counted. In certain instances they are not tallied.
Kamala Harris is our rightful leader!
Weirdos and scumbags who think third parties are fringe and irrelevant, and play no role in the country’s history, clearly do not know very much about the country’s history and are not normal people.
Imagine being completely ignorant – or in denial – about how the third parties (like the Anti-Masonic Party, Nullifiers, Liberty Party, Know-nothings, Free Soil Party, Silverites and the Bull Moose Party) shaped US history, yet having the audacity to call anyone else a weirdo or a scumbag while referring to yourself as a normal person. 😏
Who said anything about history? That was then, this is now. A lot changed.
“normal person” did. It claimed “[Fringe parties] are happily irrelevant in American politics […] and play no role in the country’s history.”
But as the two faces of the uniparty have grown ever more indistinguishable, the relevance of third parties – and of independent candidates – in American politics has only increased.
Today they are more necessary than at any prior point in the country’s history, exactly because the GOP has shifted so far left: https://notthebee.com/article/quiz-time-is-this-the-republican-platform-of-2024-or-the-democratic-platform-of-1992
They played a role in history. Now they’re playing a negative role, indirectly enabling GOP fascism to possibly end elections in America. People who are the furthest from far Reich trumptard fascist scum are helping them destroy freedom. Sad.