BAN: New Mexico Secretary of State Appoints a Green Party Member to Commisison on New Election Regulations

According to this news story, New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera has appointed three members to a commission to plan new regulations for election procedures. One of the three is a Republican, one is a Democrat, and one is a Green.

The problem with New Mexico is not the election regulations, but the election law itself. Ironically, the New Mexico Green Party is not ballot-qualified, even though it had a candidate in a partisan election in November 2008 who carried two counties, Santa Fe and Los Alamos. That Green Party nominee polled 43.69% of the vote for Public Regulation Commission in a two-person race with a Democrat. The Green Party meets the registration test to be a major party, and it meets the vote test to be a major party. But it still isn’t recognized, because a major party can’t be recognized unless it also meets the definition of a political party, and that means a group whose presidential candidate polled at least one-half of 1% for President or Governor, whichever was most recent. A lawsuit against that aspect of the law is pending in U.S. District Court.