On December 20, the Florida Secretary of State disqualified the Socialist Workers Party, on the grounds that it has not complied with the 2011 law that required all parties to re-qualify. The new law required all parties to again submit a list of party officers, and to furnish certain other information about the party rules. Also, the new rules said that each party must have at least three officers, and that they all must be registered members of that party. The Socialist Workers Party was disqualified for not having submitted a new application.
As the Secretary of State’s letter points out, the party, or any party, is free to re-qualify at any time.
*sad tuba*
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Who are the qualified parties?
Almost 30 parties – two socialist, a pirate party and a surfers party. And two serf-ers parties (rim shot).
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/parties.shtml
What exactly is this new Florida ballot access law? Can you provide a link?
The new law is contained in House Bill 1355, which passed the Florida legislature in 2011. One can read the entire bill on the Florida legislature’s web page. But it is over 100 pages long.
For the definition of “party”, the old law said any group that filed a list of officers is a party. The new law says the group must have at least 3 state party officers and they must all be registered members of that party. Also the law requires the group to submit its bylaws and there are various requirements for those bylaws.