The Arizona Green Party recently submitted its petition to be recognized again as a qualified party. Election officials are now checking the signatures.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
The Arizona Green Party recently submitted its petition to be recognized again as a qualified party. Election officials are now checking the signatures.
I wish the AZ Green Party luck. It’s going to be a hard fight to get whoever ends up being the Green Party candidate for president on the ballot here in Illinois, and there’s no guarantee of success, so the more state Green Parties that can gain qualified party status in other states, the better.
Minor party activists in Illinois are planning to lobby for a better ballot access law. Also there are two lawsuits pending against aspects of Illinois ballot access law, both with good chances of success. The law for 2016 may be better than the existing law. Ballot access laws are constantly changing and to a certain extent, all of use who care do have the power to help improve them.
Does Arizona make 21 or 22 state green parties qualified if the petition is successful?
Arizona will only make #20. But the Maryland Green petition will be submitted on Dec. 30, 2014, and if both petitions are successful, that will then make 21.
Greens are working to get ballot access improvement bills in Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. The number of states could increase some more if certain types of bill are passed. For example, a bill in Connecticut that would say if a party got 1% for any statewide race then it is on for all the statewide races. That would put the Greens on for president in 2016.
Idaho seems like an easy state to retain ballot access by running a few candidates. So why is it so hard for new parties to gain that access?
The petition to get on, 2% of the last presidential vote, requires 13,102 valid signatures. That is very difficult in a small population state. No one has successfully done the Idaho party petition since 1996, except Americans Elect, which had the money to hire professional circulators.
The Green Party has never been on in Idaho. Even Ralph Nader couldn’t get on in Idaho in 2000, the year he had the most support. It was one of 7 states in which he failed to qualify.
It seems very likely that if New Hampshire passes an improved ballot access law, the Greens will petition to be on in that state as well.