A lower Alaska state court will hear oral arguments in Green Party of Alaska v State, on November 13, at 3 pm, in Anchorage. The case is 3AN-05-10787. The issue is the constitutionality of the state’s 2004 definition of “political party”. The law passed in 2004 says that if a party does not have registration equal to 3% of the last vote cast, then it must poll 3% for Governor, in gubernatorial election years. In a presidential election year, it must poll 3% for U.S. Senate. If there is no U.S. Senate election up in a presidential election year, then it must poll 3% for U.S. House.

The Green Party failed to poll 3% for Governor in 2002, but it consistently polls 3% for U.S. House, and it almost always polls 3% for U.S. Senate. It argues that since the state uses the vote for U.S. Senate or U.S. House in presidential election years, there is no rational reason why it can’t use the vote for U.S. House or Senate in the gubernatorial election years. The Green Party already won an injunction, several years ago, keeping it on the ballot while this lawsuit is pending.

The state argues vociferously that votes cast for Green Party candidates for U.S. House are not meaningful, since Alaska U.S. House races are consistently not closely contested between the Democratic and Republican nominees for U.S. House (the Republican Party always wins by a huge margin for that office). The state argues that it is rational to only use the vote for Governor in gubernatorial election years, since gubernatorial elections are usually close in Alaska.

It would be strange if the state won the case, since the Libertarian and Alaskan Independence Parties would remain on the ballot (since they have enough registered voters, so that they don’t need to worry about the vote test). The Green Party consistently out-polls the Libertarian and Alaskan Independence Parties in Alaska. Also the Green Party has more legislative candidates on the ballot this year than the Libertarian and Alaskan Independence Parties. Therefore, if the state wins the case, the minor party that polls the most votes in most statewide elections, and has the most candidates, would be removed from the ballot, while two other minor parties would remain on.