On April 21, the Florida House passed HB 1355 on a party-line vote, 79-37. All Republicans who voted, voted “yes”; all Democrats who voted, voted “no.” Among other things, the bill says that qualified parties may not place a presidential nominee on the ballot unless they (1) are recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a “national committee”; or (2) submit a petition signed by a number of voters equal to 4% of the last presidential election vote cast. Furthermore, the petition would need the signatures of 4% of the presidential vote cast in each of half the state’s U.S. House districts. The party would need to pay to have this petition checked. The petition is due July 15. The bill does not even say what should be on the petition, and it is impossible to know if the presidential and vice-presidential candidates’ names need to be on the petition.
It is impossible for a newly formed political party to be recognized as a “national committee” by the Federal Election Commission as early as July 15 of its first year of existence. The FEC does not grant that recognition until after a party has participated in a presidential election, and also participated in a congressional election with candidates in multiple states. The only exception was the Natural Law Party, which was recognized on September 21, 1992. Significant minor political parties that never received FEC recognition as a “national committee” include the New Alliance Party (which placed its presidential nominee, Lenora Fulani, on the ballot in all states in 1988), Barry Commoner’s Citizens Party (which requested national committee status but did not obtain it), the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Populist Party of the 1980’s and 1990’s (which requested national committee status and did not obtain it), and the Working Families Party. Significant minor parties that did not receive FEC recognition as a national committee until after the party was several years old include the Reform Party in the period before 1998, and the Green Party in the period before 2001. Also, Americans Elect, which may become a very significant new political party in 2012, would not be able to obtain FEC recognition until 2013 at the earliest, and would not be able to obtain it even then unless it had had candidates for Congress in 2012.
The newspapers of Florida, with the exception of the Tampa Tribune, have not even mentioned the ballot access change in newspaper stories about the bill.
This is an absolutely horrible bill for ballot access and for fair elections. Hopefully it won’t go any further than this. If this bill becomes law it is going to be bad news for minor party and independent candidates in Florida.
Everyone should note that this attack is coming from Republicans (not that Democrats are any better overall, because they aren’t, but in this example the Republicans are worse).
The underlying ROT is who controls about 10 percent of the GDP — leftwing gerrymander Donkeys or rightwing gerrymander Elephants.
Is the New Age media TOTALLY brain dead ignorant or what ???
Any media MORON can report on the murders/enslavements by Stalin and Hitler types.
P.R. and App.V. — before Civil WAR II starts.
Richard. Since you usually are the expert in such legislation, does this bill still allow a currently recognized 3rd party in Florida to nominate candidates for statewide, congressional, legislative and local offices via the Primary they are entitled to hold?
To all NAIVE folks on this list –
each New Age incumbent in the Congress or a State legislature is a POWERFUL powermad robot party hack — due to gerrymanders.
i.e. a bunch of STALIN or HITLER type MONSTERS – waging WAR on each other — by ballot access laws, gerrymander laws, etc. etc.
Any very brave undercover media folks trying to detect what happens behind closed doors when the LEADER Monster tells the gang Monsters what to do ??? – i.e. how to vote on party hack robot bills – OR ELSE.
very little different than the closed door meetings held by Hitler and Stalin in the 1930s-1940s.
Very sad. Shows that Florida Republicans obviously care little about the voice of the people and would prefer to ensure their dominance over the individual’s right to self government and freedom. This type of fascist thought in the area of election is despicable. Floridians should be outraged by this direct assault on their freedom, but sadly it will likely never reach the news much more than it has and it definitely will not be played as the majorly important issue that it is. May God help us.
Wasn’t there a Constitutional Revision passed by the voters in ’98 or ’99 that made it possible for opposition candidates on the Fla ballot?
This bill sounds an awful lot like the old Fla law that was struck down by the referendum.
PEACE
Your introduction may give some readers the impression that the bill was about presidential nominations of minor parties, or that was the issue that divided the two parties.
The provision in question is about 5 lines in a 4300-line bill (165 pages). Moreover, of the 32 amendments that failed, none related to that section of the bill.
There is a fairly extensive section of the bill that appears to be aimed at requiring minor political parties to actually engage in some sort of cognizable political activity.
The change you have made note of, replaces the old provision that recognized a party as “national” if it had a presidential candidate on the ballot in but one other State.
There is nothing in the FEC definition of a “national political committee” that has any sort of direct tie to timing (ie after the election). It is not correct that a national political committee of America Elects could not be recognized prior to 2013.
The Florida provisions for an independent presidential candidate are not modified by the HB 1355.
#3 The presidential provisions apply to all minor political parties in Florida. Some that in the past qualified as “national parties” on the basis of being on the ballot in one other State may not qualify under the new regulations.
There is nothing specific in the law about “new political parties”.
There are provisions in the bill that would require minor political parties to undertake some cognizable political activity in order to maintain their recognition.
#7, the FEC refused to give the Citizens Party recognition as a national committee during 1980.
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#6, the Florida Constitution says, “The requirements for a candidate with no party affiliation or for a candidate of a minor party for placement of the candidate’s name on the ballot shall be no greater than the requirements for a candidate of the party having the largest number of registered voters.” Article VI, sec. 1.
#3, qualified parties would continue to nominate by primary for partisan office other than President. However, the bill contains some vague and ominous provisions requiring qualified parties to notify all their members when they elect party officers. I don’t think the Democratic and Republican Parties notify all their members when they elect officers, though, so it is unclear what that part means.
More separate and UN-equal stuff.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 — a mere 57 years ago and counting.
#11 Some of the minor political parties in Florida conduct no political activities.
#9 In Advisory Order 1980-3 the FEC determined that the Citizens Party was not a political party because it had not actually nominated any candidates. The FEC would have granted “national” committee status based on the scope of the activities of the committee.
In Advisory Order 1992-30 the FEC did determine that the Natural Law Party qualified as a national committee prior to the 1992 general election.
The FEC’s archive of Advisory Orders does not go back to 1854.
#11 103.095 does not say “all members”, it does require the party to timely notify the party members of time, date, and place of all its meetings. I doubt that all current minor political parties in Florida do make a good forth effort.
Do you have concerns about this principle?
“All electors registered to vote in the minor political party in which he or she has so designated has a fundamental right to fully and meaningfully participate in the business and affairs of the minor political party without any monetary encumbrance.”
In my opinion, any party that has either gathered 30,000 or more votes for a race or has 30,000 or more members in a state should be considered viable.
#14, the Natural Law Party didn’t get its status as a national committee until mid-September 1992, way too late to have qualified in Florida by the state’s July 15 deadline. To collect 335,000 valid signatures and approximately 10,000 in each of half the US House districts would require months of activity before the July 15 deadline.
#18 You do acknowledge that the Natural Law Party did get status as a national committee in the same year that it filed, and not in a following year?
The deadline for recognition as a national party is September 1, and the FEC Advisory Order was dated September 21. So it is not impossible that the NLP could have pushed the FEC to make an earlier declaration.
John Hegelin could have qualified as an independent candidate.
#19, you are right, the Natural Law Party got its recognition on September 21, 1992, and I have amended my post. The existing law requires an independent presidential candidate in Florida to submit a petition signed by over 100,000 signatures, due July 15. Ever since 1999, when the Florida legislature eliminated mandatory petitions for all minor party and independent candidates, except for independent presidential candidates, no one has even tried to be an independent candidate for president in Florida. Everyone just creates a party, so as to avoid any petition.
I have for some years tried to persuade Florida officials that the existing 1% petition for independent presidential candidates is unconstitutional under the Florida Constitution, because that Constitution says “The requirements for a candidate with no party affiliation…shall be no greater than the requirements for a candidate of the party having the largest number of registered voters.” Democrats have the most registered voters in Florida, and Democratic presidential nominees don’t need any petition to get on the November ballot, so how can the state require over 100,000 for an independent presidential candidate?
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#19 Florida should simply use a direct primary for president just like they do for other offices.
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