CALIFORIA: Minor party candidate challenges new ballot rules

SacBee: Capitol Alert ^ | 2/1/11 | Torey Van Oot

[SmithL]

A Peace and Freedom candidate's attempt to run in the upcoming 4th Assembly District special election has sparked a legal challenge related to ballot access under the state's new top-two primary system.

Peace and Freedom party member Daniel Frederick argues that an unreasonable requirement for qualifying for the ballot prevented him from running in the March 8 special primary to replace former Assemblyman Ted Gaines, who was elected to the state Senate last month.

Under state election law, candidates must pay a filing fee or submit 1,500 voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. A separate provision lowered the threshold for candidates running in minor party primaries to 150 signatures or 10 percent of that party's registered voters in the district.

Frederick, who ran against Gaines in November, collected and submitted 225 signatures during the seven-day truncated period for qualifying for the special election ballot. But he was told the 1,500 threshold -- -- more than twice the 713 Peace and Freedom Party voters registered in the district -- would apply to all candidates under the Proposition 14-created top two system, which eliminates party primaries.

"I was denied access to the ballot," Frederick said at a press conference. "I am from the working class, I am a working class person. I don't have large funds and large war chests like the major parties."

Frederick's request that a court block the Secretary of State's office from issuing a list of certified candidates was denied, but his attorney has asked a Sacramento Superior Court judge to determine whether the alternative threshold for minor party candidates should still stand.

[newzjunkey]

Prop 14 was another bad idea swallowed whole by the moronic majority of CA voters.