The Connecticut Day is reporting that a fledgling party in Rhode Island, the Moderate Party, has been asked by the state of Rhode Island to provide information about “membership and structure” in order to determine if it has standing in a ballot access case. The party has filed suit against the state, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, to lower the number of signatures needed to get a candidate on the ballot in Rhode Island. Currently, a candidate must collect signatures equalling 5 percent of the last presidential or gubernatorial vote cast, meaning about 24,000 signatures fo 2010 candidates.
The Moderate Party has yet to run any candidates for office, but they did endorse a dozen State Senate and State House candidates, including five independents. Two of their endorsed candidates won, but neither were independents.
An excerpt of the article:
”Are you a small group of people around the coffee table, or are you an entity that’s viable and able to go out and do what needs to be done?” Assistant Attorney General Thomas Palombo asked Friday during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Providence.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said states can require new parties to demonstrate they have a “significant modicum of support” before becoming recognized.
U.S. District Judge William Smith said the party’s chairman, Kenneth Block, should be required to answer questions about its membership, its organizational structure and whether any candidates have committed to running on the party’s behalf.
But he said Block shouldn’t be required to name possible candidates.
Mark Freel, a lawyer for the Moderate Party, said the party shouldn’t be subjectively forced to prove its legitimacy by releasing information about its membership size.
Smith also postponed a bench trial that had been scheduled for March 16. A lawyer for the state says he plans to file a motion seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.
Under the law, new parties petitioning to get on the ballot must collect signatures equal to 5 percent of the total number of votes cast in Rhode Island in the preceding presidential or gubernatorial election. Roughly 475,000 voters, a record turnout, cast ballots last year.
New parties also can’t start gathering signatures until the year of the election – in this case, Jan. 1, 2010.
The state also recognizes political parties whose previous candidates for governor or president earned at least 5 percent of the state vote. But the Moderate Party didn’t run any candidates for either office last year.
Read the full article here.