The Arizona Secretary of State has again started tracking how many registered Green Party members there are in Arizona. The Secretary of State last posted any data for registered Greens in November 2009. Because the party failed to poll 5% for President in November 2008, and because it failed to get its registration up to two-thirds of 1% by November 2009, it lost its qualified status and the state stopped tracking how many people were registered Greens.
Now that the party is back on the ballot, the Secretary of State has started tallying Greens again. Surprisingly, the party now has more registrants (both on a raw number basis and on a percentage basis) than it did while it was not qualified. The new registration data shows 4,345 members, which is .142% of the state total.
By contrast, the last data from before the party was disqualified showed 4,261 members, which was .137%. Generally when a party is not qualified, its numbers decline. As Andy’s comment says, the Arizona registration forms don’t mention any party, and voters who want to join a party must write in the name of the party.
“Because the party failed to poll 5% for President in November 2008, and because it failed to get its registration up to two-thirds of 1% by November 2009, it lost its qualified status and was removed from the voter registration form in almost all counties.”
Richard, unless Arizona changed their voter registration forms after 2009, Arizona voter registrations do not have voter registration check boxes on them. Instead, Arizona voter registration forms just have an empty box where people who are registrating can fill in the name of the political party banner which they want to be registered under. The Democrats and Republicans do not even have check boxes.
Pingback: Green Party of Arizona Gains Registration Numbers, Despite Being Off the Form | Independent Political Report
Thanks, Andy.