The Libertarian Party of Alaska has increased its registration by approximately 1,000 voters in the last three months. The party will be removed from the ballot unless it gets its registration up to 9,786 in the next year. It now has 7,000 registrants, which makes it already the strongest Libertarian Party state affiliate in the nation, when each state is compared on what share of the state’s voters are registered Libertarians.
In 2004, the legislature made ballot access more difficult for parties that qualify by registration, but only for mid-term years. The 2004 law is somewhat irrational, and requires a party to have registration of 3% of the last vote cast. Since turnout in presidential years is about 30% higher than in midterm years, this means the requirements shoot up after a presidential election, and then go down again. If the 2004 amendment had not passed, parties in Alaska would need 7,120 registrants for 2010 instead of 9,786.
This report appears to be erroneous.
Acording to official State of ALaska Election Division reports, the Alaska Libertarian Party has had the following voter registration numbers.
04/03/09 = 6,020
05/03/09 = 6,136
06/03/09 = 6,232
This is only an increase of 212 registered voters in the past three months, a far cry from 1,000!!!
My post is accurate. The new registrations exist, they just haven’t been processed yet by the state.
Richard,
Are there any other “registration” states where a minor party is close to ballot access by adding new registrants?
Thanks in advance for your knowledge.
States that use registration data to measure whether a party should stay on the ballot, or to get on, tend to be of two types…the rather easy, and the rather difficult. In the category of “hard” states are Alaska, Arizona, California (for getting on), Maryland, Massachusetts, and Maine (for staying on). Generally no one meets the registration requirements in the hard states, except in California they do because the rewards are so great. Also Libertarians have mastered the Arizona and Alaska registration requirements many times, but none of the other nationally-organized minor parties ever have. Libertarians tend to be more self-confident about running registration drives than other parties do (except in California).
The Alaskan Independence Party has and will continue to meet voter registration requirements. We currently have over 13,000 registered members. Easily twice the numbers of the LP in AK. We also consistently poll 4-5% in statewide races. Therefore meeting both forms of ballot access requirements, registration & electoral. The AIP may soon become the only ballot qualified opposition to the “old parties” in Alaska. While officially an independent autonomous party, the AIP has and continues to foster a close relationship with the national Constitution Party. Of course, we welcome all voters, including those libertarians who seek a viable home party in Alaska.
As of today, out of 480,092 total registered voters in Alaska, the AIP has 13,236 and the LP has 6,371 an increase of only 351 since April.