From Ballot Access News, June 14, 2013:
Kansas Secretary of State Re-Interprets Law to Make it More Difficult for a Party to Remain on the Ballot; Removes Reform Party
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach recently re-interpreted Kansas election law section 25-302b, the law that determines how a party remains on the ballot. That law, passed in 1984, says, “Any recognized political party whose nominee for any office for which the officer is elected from the state as a whole fails to receive at least 1% of the total vote cast for any such office in this state at any general election, or which fails to nominate persons for at least one such office, shall cease to be a recognized political party.”
The law was written with input from the Kansas Libertarian Party, which wrote the law so that in years when no statewide office is on the ballot except President, the vote test would not apply. Note the phrase “any office for which the officer is elected from the state as a whole.” The intent of the law was to exclude President, because President is not elected from the state as a whole; President is elected by the entire nation.
In 2000, a year in which no statewide office was on the ballot except President, the Kansas Secretary did not disqualify either the Libertarian Party or the Reform Party, even though neither of them received as much as 1% of the presidential vote. But that precedent has now been reversed by the current Secretary of State, who removed the Reform Party from the ballot earlier this year because it did not poll as much as 1% for President. It only polled .43% for its nominee, Chuck Baldwin. The Secretary of State did not ask for an Attorney General’s Opinion before he removed the party; he did not issue a formal opinion stating that the old precedent was being reversed. He simply wrote a letter to the Reform Party, telling the party that it is disqualified. He also removed Americans Elect from the ballot, but that was not surprising since Americans Elect had asked to be removed.
This development should be of concern to the Libertarian Party, even though the Libertarian Party did poll over 1% for President in 2012 (it polled 1.76% for Gary Johnson). The Libertarian Party did not poll as much as 1% in Kansas for President in 1984, or 1992, or 1996, or 2000, or 2004, or 2008. In future presidential years it may again have trouble polling 1% for President.
Some comments on the article:
- Richard Winger
When a law is ambiguous, legislative intent and precedent are both useful for interpreting it. Bill Earnest, a Kansas Libertarian Party leader, worked with the legislature in 1984 to draft the bill so as to exclude president. That is why “nominee” is singular; if the bill meant to include presidential electors, it could have said “nominee or nominees”.
In 2000, the Kansas Secretary of State was aware of the legislature’s intent in 1984. He was Ron Thornburgh and he had worked in the Secretary of State’s office before he became Secretary of State. That is why he interpreted the law in late 2000 to leave the Libertarian and Reform Parties on the ballot.
The current Secretary of state is an anti-minor party zealot. He personally argued in the 10th circuit last year when the Constitution Party was trying to win the ability of voters to register into the Constitution Party, even though it is not a ballot-qualified party. I had never before heard of any Secretary of State who personally argued in court in an election law case. Generally an Assistant Attorney General does that work.
Oh well, the Kansas RfP was defunct anyways- I tried to contact them various times and never got a response.
If you’d like to discuss various different states give me a call 415-690-6352
We’re working on New York. If we could pull it off, it would be a big win for us.
Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi?
Dang if you could get Alabama and Texas that would be the whole Gulf Coast.
We have Florida. We were late to file the paperwork in Louisiana for president, and weren’t able to get him on the ballot there.
Ballot Access in Louisiana is linked to statewide races, so we still have it.
Are you sure about Florida? I seem to recall reading they were removed there for failing to file paperwork. I could be wrong.
Florida, Louisiana, and the rebel faction in Misssissppi. A depressing reality.
It looks like one of the last vestiges of the Reform Party has finally died off.
Where else does the Reform Party still have ballot access? Mississippi? Michigan? Florida? Colorado? Anywhere?
Not surprised. They have no donors, no money, no nothing. I think the party basically has an executive board and like four or five other people.