On January 17, the Florida Secretary of State’s office posted new voter registration data for all the state’s qualified parties. One of the mildly amusing facts revealed in this registration tally is that Americans Elect, which is ballot-qualified in Florida, only has four registered members.
Americans Elect does not encourage people to register as members of the party. Americans Elect has its own privately-financed on-line presidential primary process, and any registered voter in the United States is free to participate. There is no need for voters to register “Americans Elect” to participate in the group’s activities. Florida law requires that the statewide officers of any party be registered members of that party, however, so Americans Elect had to make sure that its statewide officers were registered into the party.
On January 23, California will release a new voter registration tally, and it will be interesting to see how many California voters have registered “Americans Elect.” Americans Elect is a qualified party in California, and soon new voter registration forms will list Americans Elect as a choice. In the meantime, Californians have been free to register into Americans Elect, by filling out the “Other” line on the voter registration form and writing it in.