Florida Secretary of State Threatens to Cancel Party Status for Many Qualified Minor Parties

The Florida Secretary of State has many regulations that require qualified minor parties to conduct certain activities. Here is a link to that regulation, 1S-2.050, which is titled, “Cancellation of Political Party Filings.”

One of the regulations requires parties to have had at least $500 “aggregate reported financial activity” during a calendar year. The Florida Secretary of State’s office has notified many qualified minor parties that they are in danger of being removed from the ballot for not having shown at least $500 worth of financial activity during 2011. Parties that have received such letters include the Ecology Party (which nominated Ralph Nader for president in 2008), America’s Party (which nominated Alan Keyes for President in 2008, and was formerly known as America’s Independent Party), the Independence Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Reform Party. Other parties are likely to receive such letters in the near future, because they have already told the Secretary of State in recent filings that they didn’t have any financial activity last year. The parties likely to receive such letters are Americans Elect and the Pirate Party.

Certain other qualified parties received a different letter, saying they are in danger of losing their qualified status because they didn’t make the required financial report for 2011. These parties include the Green Party, the Independent Party, and the Tea Party.

The Ecology Party has already responded to its letter, and has documented that it did have more than $500 financial activity, even though most of it was not for campaigns. The Florida regulation appears vague about what is encompassed in the term “financial activity.”


Comments

Florida Secretary of State Threatens to Cancel Party Status for Many Qualified Minor Parties — No Comments

  1. Richard,

    The rule is NOT VAGUE. It says “The party’s aggregate reported financial activity during the calendar year is $500 or less.” In addition to campaign finance reports (“contributions” & “expenditures” according to FL statute 106 are related to an election or other political activity). Many parties apparently report all their financial activity this way, mistakenly. Parties also are required to file an annual audit of all their financial activity, whether or not politically related. “Aggregate financial activity” would, by definition include both. The interpretation by the state that ONLY campaign finance reports count toward the $500 is unwarranted. And why should a party HAVE to have $500, anyway? I think this is all part of the legislature’s efforts to get rid of minor parties.

  2. My understanding is that this rule was only added in Sept.

    It was relatively obscure, and we just didn’t know about it.

    Our FL affiliate has jumped through many bureaucratic hoops for the State of Florida, and has met all their other criteria in exquisite detail.

    However, the policy of our national party, and America’s Party of Florida, is to not seek or accept donations. Everything we do at these levels is entirely volunteer and grassroots. We instead urge potential donors to give directly to vetted, qualified candidates, or to spend their money themselves on grassroots activity at the local level.

    How this will be resolved I’m not sure yet. But it will be resolved.

    Thanks for the report.

    Tom Hoefling
    Chairman, America’s Party
    selfgovernment.us

  3. The regulations were adopted last summer to implement in particular 103.095(5).

    (a) The requirement to have registered members is in statute (and is implicit based on the requirement of having 3 officers).
    (b) Florida law requires quarterly campaign finance reports. The regulation implements possible cancellation if none are received for 6 months.
    (c) Florida law requires an annual audit of party funds, due 90 days after the end of the calendar year – this probably explains the recent notices.
    (d) It is not clear where the $500 comes from. It appears expenditures less than $500 don’t have to be reported – so it a party doesn’t spend enough to warrant campaign finance reporting, maybe it isn’t really a party.
    (e) It is Florida law that a political party give public notice to its members of its meeting on a functioning website, as part of the requirement that party members may “meaningfully participate in the business and affairs” of the party.
    (f) Party officers are included in the filing certificate, and Florida law requires the SOS to be notified of changes within 5 days.
    (g) Florida law requires changes in certificate to be filed within 5 days.
    (h) Florida law requires rules and bylaws of party to be filed.

    Florida law requires the SOS to prescribe procedures for cancelling a party. The SOS has procedures to sent a preliminary notice, a final notice, permits hearings, etc.

    I think it would help you to understand the Florida laws, if you view them as being analogous to state laws regulating corporate governance.

    A corporation must have certain officers, make reports to the state, must have an annual meeting, and ultimately be responsible to the shareholders.

    Unless there are industry-specific regulations, the state law doesn’t dictate what products of services the corporation makes, and the regulations really don’t care whether the corporation is profitable or is dissolved.

    Similarly, the Florida regulations don’t dictate the platform of the party, or which offices it campaigns for or what political activities it undertakes. But it does require that the party organization be responsive to its membership, and have enough structure so that it can be determined who speaks for the party. Unlike, for example, it doesn’t purport to tell the party how to choose its presidential electors, and all kinds of other matter which is not appropriate for a State to do.

    California would do well to implement similar regulations when it wipes out Division 7 of the Elections Code. If some small number of registrants were needed (say 50 or 100), then qualification could be by petition. If a voter writes in the name of an unqualified party, the registrar could simply write him a nice form letter explaining that the voter is not registered as No Party Preference, or perhaps “independent”.

  4. #2 When Florida passed its legislation last year regulation minor political parties, it included Florida Statute 103.095(5) that required the Secretary of State to adopt regulations to ensure compliance. There was notice in Florida Administrative Weekly (which appears to Florida’s equivalent of the Federal Register) that the regulations were being created (June 10) and that they were promulgated (July 15). It is possible that they had no outside input, but for the most part they are directly from the Florida statutes.

    The procedures are simple and straightforward to comply with. They send a letter to the party and their is a process for responding, including hearings if wanted.

    The one regulation that I could find no direct statutory requirement for is the $500 of aggregate financial activity. It appears that campaign spending of less than $500 is not reportable (by a candidate, PAC, or anyone else). So since a party must report its campaign financing and be audited annually, maybe they decided that a party that doesn’t have minimal activity has no activity.

    It is possible that the the SOS exceeded their statutory authority in that one regulation, 1S-2.050(1)(d). You might inquire what the basis of that regulation is.

  5. Pingback: Florida Secretary of State Threatens to Cancel Party Status for Many Qualified Minor Parties | ThirdPartyPolitics.us

  6. Please note that Rule, 1S-2.050 has a Publish Date effective 09/07/2011, and parties were not informed that there was such a $500 reported aggregate financial activity requirement. The regulation itself says “(2) Cancellation. The division may cancel the filings by a party, to include its registration and approved status as a party, when: . . . (d) The party’s aggregate reported financial activity during the calendar year is $500 or less. . . .” It is a decision left up to the Division of Elections. Furthermore, it was put in place after two-thirds of the year were over (a non-major election year), and placed in a Rule that was not sent by any special notification to the minor political parties.

  7. Section 103.095, Florida Statutes (the law which the new rule concerns) includes this provision: “(2)?Each elector registered to vote in the minor political party in which he or she has so designated has a fundamental right to fully and meaningfully participate in the business and affairs of the minor political party without any monetary encumbrance. The constitution, bylaws, rules, regulations, or other equivalent documents must reflect this fundamental right. . . .” As far as I know the executive committee through its chairman and treasurer are required to file electronically campaign finance reports on a periodic basis, generally quarterly with some variation in election years. There is a check box for waiver if there were no contributions or expenditures. Likewise there has been a provision to submit a properly notarized letter for the audit indicating no funds were spent or collected by the executive committee of the party. Now this rule gives the division of elections authority to place a monetary encumbrance on the existence (and thereby operation of the business and affairs) of the party which consists of a “group of citizens organized for the general purposes of electing to office qualified persons and determining public issues under the democratic processes of the United States (same Section, (1)).”

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