The Boston Globe has this story about the United Independent Party of Massachusetts. Because the only statewide office on the ballot this year is president, and because the party is not running anyone for president, it will go off the ballot in November 2016 unless its registration reaches 1% of the state total. The party has about 23,000 registrants but needs about 43,000.
The story quotes Secretary of State William Galvin as complaining about the cost of printing ballots for the September 8, 2016 primary for the party. Between 1940 and 1973, Massachusetts had two categories of qualified party, and the smaller qualified parties nominated by convention, at no cost to the government. Parties that had polled 3% for Governor were entitled to a primary. Parties that had polled one-tenth of 1% for Governor at each of the last three elections nominated by convention. The minor party category kept the Communist, Prohibition, Socialist, and Socialist Labor Parties on the ballot with no petition needed. The Socialist Party and the Communist Party went off the ballot after 1942, but the other two remained on through the 1972 election. Then the Socialist Workers Party filed a lawsuit alleging that the 3% petition for a new party to get on the ballot was discriminatory, because old parties could stay on with a vote of only one-tenth of 1%. A 3-judge U.S. District Court agreed that the law was discriminatory. But instead of saying that the scheme was unconstitutional, and letting the legislature fix it, the judges invalidated the easy vote test for staying on, and left the 3% petition in place. This is an example of judges overstepping their role.
With the minor parties gone, the legislature then repealed the minor party category, so now all ballot-qualified parties must nominate by primary. It would be desirable for activists in Massachusetts to inform the Secretary of State that his problem could be solved if the legislature restored two categories of qualified party.
