On February 9, a lower state court issued an injunction, prohibiting the state from removing the Green Party from the ballot until after July 2006. This almost certainly means that the same court will eventually rule that the definition of “political party” is unconstitutionally severe. Green Party of Alaska v State, 3AN-05-10787.

The existing law requires a party to either have registration membership equal to 3% of the last vote cast, or to have polled 3% for Governor in the last election, if the last election was a gubernatorial election. If the last election was a presidential election, then (if it doesn’t have the needed registrations) it must have polled 3% for U.S. Senator. Ironically, however, if it polled 3% for U.S. Senator in a gubernatorial election year, that doesn’t count.

The existing law is also somewhat irrational for basing the registration alternative on the percentage of the vote cast. Since there is always a much larger turnout in presidential years than in gubernatorial years, this means a party needs about 9,000 registrants in the two years following a presidential election, but only about 7,000 registrants in the two years following a gubernatorial election.