The Florida Secretary of State has many regulations that require qualified minor parties to conduct certain activities. Here is a link to that regulation, 1S-2.050, which is titled, “Cancellation of Political Party Filings.”
One of the regulations requires parties to have had at least $500 “aggregate reported financial activity” during a calendar year. The Florida Secretary of State’s office has notified many qualified minor parties that they are in danger of being removed from the ballot for not having shown at least $500 worth of financial activity during 2011. Parties that have received such letters include the Ecology Party (which nominated Ralph Nader for president in 2008), America’s Party (which nominated Alan Keyes for President in 2008, and was formerly known as America’s Independent Party), the Independence Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Reform Party. Other parties are likely to receive such letters in the near future, because they have already told the Secretary of State in recent filings that they didn’t have any financial activity last year. The parties likely to receive such letters are Americans Elect and the Pirate Party.
Certain other qualified parties received a different letter, saying they are in danger of losing their qualified status because they didn’t make the required financial report for 2011. These parties include the Green Party, the Independent Party, and the Tea Party.
The Ecology Party has already responded to its letter, and has documented that it did have more than $500 financial activity, even though most of it was not for campaigns. The Florida regulation appears vague about what is encompassed in the term “financial activity.”