Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 22:09:56 -0500 (EST)
From: phillies@wpi.edu ("George D. Phillies")
Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Funding Liberty Part IV
To: liberty_1st@excell.net, lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com, lpus-misc@dehnbase.org, PALibernet@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Newsgroups: talk.politics.libertarian,alt.politics.libertarian
{\Large Appendix B: Massachusetts Election Law}
Every state has its own election laws, with their own features and quirks.
To understand the electoralsignificance of Major Party Status, we have to
consider a slew of details.
Massachusetts recognizes minor political parties (called "Party
Designations") and Major Political Parties. Party Designations status is
obtained by petition. The would-be party submits a petition signed by at
least 50 registered voters, and receives Party Designation status. Under
Massachusetts Law, any candidate may place a label of up to three words
(Recall Mr.\ Ferguson, who ran with the label "Larouche Was Right" by his
name on the ballot.) Any voter may register ("enroll") as the member of
any party. Party Designation status means that a central count is kept of
the numbered of voters enrolled under that designation.
Major Party Status is obtained if (1) the Party has enrolled at least 1%
of the registered voters in the state, or (2) any of the Party's
candidates received at least 3% of the vote in the most recent statewide
election. In recent memory, only the Democrats and Republicans have had
enough registered voters. Several Parties, including Libertarian, Green,
and Reform, have received enough votes to qualify as a major party through
the next election cycle. With Major Party Status, the Party's name
appears on the Voter Registration form, so that people can enroll in the
party by checking a box.
It is important to understand that in Massachusetts Major Party status
makes it substantially harder to put candidates on the ballot. This
circumstance is the opposite of that found in many other states, where
Major Party Status makes it easier to get candidates on the ballot. The
core issue is that in Massachusetts all candidates go on the ballot by
petition. There are "nominating conventions", but these conventions are
decorative, not functional.
Why is Major Party Status a disadvantage? The signature count requirements
are exactly the same for all candidates. For example, to run for State
Representative, you need 150 valid signatures, no matter if you are a
Democrat or from a totally new party. If you are running with a Party
Designation, any registered voter may sign your petition, and if you get
enough signatures you go on the November General Election ballot. If you
are running as a Major Party candidate, registered voters enrolled in
other major parties are not allowed to sign your petition; if you get
enough signatures you go on the September Primary Election ballot. This
restriction efffectively doubles or more the number of signatures that a
small-major-party candidate needs to collect in order ot have enough valid
signatures, relative to the number of signatures that a Democrat needs to
collect.
Worse yet, Massachusetts has a substantial history of using its election
laws and the September Primary election to knock small-major-party
candidates out of the race, Under these laws, a small-major-party that put
its candidate on the September Primary Ballot can be left with no
candidate whatsoever on the ballot in the General election. The path to
this predicament is straightforward. The large Majo Party seeking to
eliminate a small-major-party candidate from the ballot waits until the
Summer before the election. It then re-registers a very small number of
its faithful members as members of that small party, or lines up the
"Unenrolled" (other states would call them "Independent") registered
voters of its support groups. Come the September Primary, these people go
to the polling place, take a small-major-party ballot, and write in a
straw candidate, or the candidate of the large major party, rather than
voting for the candidate of the small major party.
If the write-in candidate wins [this has happened at the U.S. Congress
level], he has two choices. He can accept the nomination, in which case
he gets a second party designation under his name. He can decline the
nomination, in which case under State Law the small-major-party ballot
line is left blank. In neither case can the small major party get its own
candidate back on the ballot. Furthermore, Party Designations may govern
themselves as they see fit, but Major Parties are mandatorily governed by
State Committeemen and State Committeewomen elected for four-year terms
during the Presidential Primary by the registered voters in each State
Senate District. Under current State Law, this governance requirement
would permit a large-major-party to elect its own puppets to a majority of
the State Committee posts of the small major party, and convert the Small
Major Party to its puppet.
In Massachusetts, Major Party status thus makes it much harder to petition
to get candidates on the ballot. Major Party status makes it much easier
for other major parties to make those candidates go away before November.
Major Party Status does not change how or where a candidate's name and
Party Designation appears on any ballot. In 1998, when we were a Party
Designation and not a Major Party, I ran for U.S. Congress. My ballot
line read "George Phillies -- Libertarian".
There was thus absolutely no sense whatsoever in which the Howell 2000
campaign was a race for ballt access.
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