Bruce McPherson, California Secretary of State, has finally determined to remove the Peace & Freedom Party (see post below). However, he won’t release his reasoning. Presumably, he argues that the precedents that show his interpretation is wrong (those from 1998, 1970, 1950 and 1934) don’t apply, because the law changed in 2000. However, the law change in 2000 does not support the Secretary’s position. The law change was made by SB 1823, and the Legislative Counsel’s Digest says “This bill would require political parties to have their qualifications reviewed by the Secretary of State following each gubernatorial election”. McPherson is violating this law by applying the review before a gubernatorial election, not following a gubernatorial election.

Furthermore, another precedent has been discovered that contradicts the McPherson ruling, and this precedent is under the existing law. In 1998 the Reform Party failed to get 2% of the vote for any statewide race, so it went off the ballot. But at the February 1999 registration tally, it increased its registration so as to meet the requirement for new parties (just as Peace & Freedom did the same, when it re-qualified in the February 2003 tally). Reform registration declined after February 1999, below the registration standard for new parties, but it was permitted to be on the ballot in both 2000 and 2002.

Billionaire Tom Golisano said on January 31 that he will not run for Governor of New York this year. He had been the Independence Party’s candidate in 1994, 1998 and 2002. He had changed his registration to “Republican” and most observers felt he would be a candidate this year for the Republican nomination.

The California Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson, seems to be on the verge of reversing 75 years of precedent, and ruling that a party that first qualified in a presidential election year cannot be on the following gubernatorial election ballot two years later, unless it has registration equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote.

The California election code section defining political parties has not changed in structure since 1929. Always, in the past, a party that qualifies in a presidential year is assumed to remain qualified, until it fails either the vote test or the registration test. The registration test is only one-fifteenth of 1%, and the vote test is 2% for any statewide race in a gubernatorial election year.

Peace & Freedom qualified in 2004. Since it wasn’t on the ballot in 2002, obviously it didn’t poll 2% of the vote for any statewide race in 2002. Precedents from 1934 (the Liberty Party), 1950 (Independent Progressive Party), 1970 (Peace & Freedom Party), and 1998 (Natural Law Party), all agree that a party that first qualifies in a presidential year remains on the ballot until it fails either test. PFP has not failed either test. Yet, the Secretary of State is saying it must, in effect, re-qualify this year.

The Secretary of State’s office has been furnished with the historical information, and the final decision is still pending.