On August 10, the Florida Secretary of State determined that the No Labels presidential petition is valid. No Labels became a qualified party in Florida in 2022. However, under a law passed in 2011, a qualified party can’t be on for president unless it is recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a “national committee”, or unless it submits a petition signed by 1% of the number of registered voters. No Labels has now successfully done that presidential petition, which required 145,040 signatures.
The 2011 restriction was not enforced in 2012. The Florida Secretary of State said he has no knowledge of which parties are recognized by the FEC, and therefore the law couldn’t be enforced. But in 2016, in order to keep Evan McMullin off the ballot (he was the nominee of the Independent Party of Florida), a new Secretary of State changed the policy and said the law would be enforced. He did not explain how he knew which parties are recognized by the FEC.
In 2020, the Secretary of State put the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the ballot for president, even though the PSL has never been recognized as a national committee by the FEC, and even though it did not do the huge presidential petition. The only parties that have ever been recognized by the FEC as national committees are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Natural Law, Reform, and Socialist Parties. The 2011 law discriminates against new parties, because the FEC will never grant “national committee” status to a new party. Only parties that have already had a presidential nominee on the ballot in several states, and also congressional candidates on the ballot in several states, can qualify as “national committees.”
