President Obama Endorses a Two-Party System for the U.S.

Posted on by June 11, 2016
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On the evening of June 9, President Obama was on the Tonight Show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. He said, “I am worried about the Republican Party. Democracy works, this country works, when you have two parties that are serious and try to solve problems…at the end of the day, you want a healthy two-party system. You want the Republican nominee to be somebody who could do the job if he wins.”

“Two-party system” is an ambiguous term. When it was first coined, in 1906, to describe the British party system, it means a system in which two parties are much stronger than the others, but one in which there more than two parties in the national legislature. Over the years, in the United States, “two-party system” has come to mean a system in which the government actively discourages voters from participating in any but the two largest parties.

Whichever definition the President was using, he ought to reconsider. If “two-party system” means a system in which only two parties have members in the national legislature, then the United States and Nigeria are the only “two-party systems” in the world, among the 50 most populous countries. It is difficult to argue that the party system in United States is the best system. One can look at Canada, which has five parties in the national legislature; or Great Britain, which has twelve parties in the national legislature, and easily conclude that Canada and Great Britain have better systems. Whenever lists are made of the ten best countries, based on various objective criteria, the United States never appears on that list, and all the countries on that list have multi-party systems, even if in some of them, two parties are much bigger than all the others.

Rocky De La Fuente Creates American Delta Party as Vehicle for his Presidential General Election Candidacy

Posted on by June 10, 2016
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Rocky De La Fuente has created the American Delta Party, to help him be able to run for President in November, 2016. Ten states make it substantially easier to get a new party on the ballot than for an independent presidential candidate. In spirit, though, De La Fuente is an independent presidential candidate.

The party doesn’t seem to have a web page yet.

New Hampshire Deadline Passes for Declarations by Petitioning Candidates

Posted on by June 10, 2016
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Although New Hampshire does not require independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties, to submit petitions until August, such candidates must file a declaration of intent by June 10. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page, showing the list of candidates who filed. Click on “List of candidates filing declarations of intent.”

For president, four candidates filed: Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Darrell Castle, and Rocky De La Fuente. The first three are the nominees, or the likely nominees, of the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Parties. De La Fuente is an independent candidate who is domiciled in San Diego, but who is now living in Florida. He ran in many Democratic presidential primaries this year.

For Governor, Libertarian Max Abramson filed, as well as three independents: William Fortune, Jiletta Jarvis, and Michael Gill.

For U.S. Senate, Libertarian Brian Chabot filed, as well as two independents, Aaron Day and John Riggieri. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the link.

Two California Legislators Introduce Bill to Alter Presidential Candidate Nomination

Posted on by June 10, 2016
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Two members of the California Assembly, Democrat Adam Gray and Republican Kristen Olsen, have introduced ACA 13, a proposed constitutional amendment. It alters presidential primaries and presidential general elections. Here is the text.

All presidential primary candidates would appear on a single primary ballot, and all voters would use that ballot. Also, independent presidential candidates would appear on that primary ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment says the independent who receives the most votes in the presidential primary would be placed on the November ballot. Election officials would be required to produce a vote tally for the voters from each party, so that the qualified political parties would know how their own members voted in this presidential primary.

The part of the amendment relating to independent presidential candidates is not constitutional. It would require independent presidential candidates to have announced their candidacy by early March. But the U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze says that states must allow presidential candidates running outside the two major parties to announce as late as the middle of the year.

Another problem with the amendment is that California lets new parties qualify as late as July of the election year, yet the California primary for president and all other office is in early June.

If this proposal had been in effect in 2016, the presidential primary ballot used by every voter would have contained 39 presidential candidates seeking the nomination of a qualified California party, plus an undetermined number of “independent” candidates, which could create a very long primary ballot.