Posted on 08/04/2003 4:21:14 PM PDT by chance33_98
Green Party of Alaska Fighting to Stay on Future Ballots
By AP Jul 30, 2003, 09:00:00
The Green Party of Alaska filed a lawsuit in Anchorage Superior Court Tuesday challenging the way the state recognizes political parties. What's at issue here is the party's ability to get on statewide ballots without requiring its candidates to circulate petitions. The Green Party of Alaska was decertified by the state Division of Elections because its gubernatorial candidate failed to get at least three percent of the votes. That means future candidates would have to gather signatures on a nominating petition to get on the ballot. Green Party co-chairman Jim Sykes says the state law is discriminatory and should be changed. He alleges the party's equal protection rights are violated by the way the law is crafted. Sykes points out that he and another candidate running in 2002 congressional races garnered more than six percent of the vote. That should demonstrate that the party has enough support to remain a viable political party.
But, when the polls open, mirabile dictu, everyone discovers that they DO have a party preference- except the roughly 30% of clueless voters who wander in to the polls without the slightest idea of who or what they are voting for.
Until recently, we had so-called "open primaries", which encouraged Dems and Greens to cross over and vote for the weaker of the Republican candidates. We also have a fake party calling themselves "Moderate Republican", who are all Democrats.
Strange. Makes me want to go live in a cabin in the middle of the Brooks Range. Not a lot of politics there.
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