The Alabama Senate Constitution, Ethics & Elections Committee will hear SB 221 on Wednesday, March 18, at 11 a.m. This is the bill to ease the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates, and also to set a later petition deadline for new parties.
Members of the Constitution Party, and possibly members of the Libertarian Party and/or other parties, plan to be in attendance.
The LP National Facebook Page adds:
If you live, or know anyone living, in Alabama, please help the vitally important effort below to cut in half restrictions on ballot access in the state by calling and emailing legislators, attending the hearing, writing newspapers, calling talk shows, and getting the word out any way you can. Please contact your state legislators and support ballot access reform! Click http://capwiz.com/state-al/home/ to find your representatives’
Several emails have also been sent to the committee members to lobby for this legislation. Here are the ones I am aware of so far:
Kevin Knight to bill sponsor Sen. Cam Ward (before the bill had a number):
Dear Senator Ward,
Thank you for your efforts in introducing legislation to ease the restrictions on ballot access in our state. You and I, like most of our fellow Alabamians, honor the idea of fairness, including in the political process. However, as you are aware, Alabama currently has some of the most unfair ballot access laws in the country. Your past, present and future efforts to bring legislation to the floor to reverse this blemish on our state’s political record are greatly appreciated. I hope that you will continue to make the case for fairer ballot access laws to your fellow legislators in both parties, since surely they at heart believe in fairness, despite all appearances to the contrary.
Please let me know if there are any ways that you believe those of us who would like to see your bill (cutting ballot access petitioning requirements for third parties and independent candidates in half) pass can be most effective in advocating for the passage of this legislation, including any legislators that you believe may be open to persuasion on this issue. Given that in 2014 Alabama saw the only uncontested US Senate race in the nation, was the only state with four uncontested statewide races, and perhaps as a result had among the lowest voter turnout of any state in the country in a year when voter turnout nationwide was the lowest since 1942, I’m really hoping we can work together and finally pass your ballot access improvement bill this session.
Thank you again for your ballot access improvement efforts, and for taking the time to read this. Please let me know as soon as you have a bill number and any other pertinent information about the progress of this important legislation.
Kevin Knight
Paul Frankel to Sen. Ward:
Thank you for once again introducing the ballot access reform bill, SB221, and finding cosponsors. Please let me know which of your colleagues you believe may be supportive, which ones persuadable, and which ones dead set opposed. [….]
I would be interested in talking to you in person and/or on the phone about this, as well as other issues where we can work together this term with Our America Initiative, Libertarians, Constitution Party, and other possible coalition partners e.g. on prison sentencing reform, and seeing what other issues we may be able to work together on. I may be in Montgomery tomorrow for the 11 am hearing if I can arrange it, and possibly before and after; if you have any time during the day to take a few minutes to talk, that would be great. If you are too busy I understand, please call me when you have time to discuss.
Paul Frankel
Southern Region Director (formerly Alabama Director), Our America Initiative (ouramericainitiative.com)
205-534-1622If you get a chance, I would appreciate it if you could also discus these issues with my incoming replacement as
Alabama Director of OAI and current Libertarian Party of Alabama Chair, Leigh LaChine at 205-[…].I can try to set up a conference call if there is a time that works for everyone as well.
Thanks again,
-p
Paul Frankel to CONSTITUTION, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, ETHICS AND ELECTIONS COMMITTEE (slight corrections for spelling and grammar…)
Subject: SB 221 Elections, political parties and independent candidates for statewide office, number of names required to gain ballot access, reduced, Secs. 17-6-22, 17-9-3 am’d.
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2015 10:34 am
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]Members of the CONSTITUTION, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, ETHICS AND ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
Thank you for your consideration of SB 221 Elections, political parties and independent candidates for statewide office, number of names required to gain ballot access, reduced, Secs. 17-6-22, 17-9-3 am’d.
I have been told that it is on the calendar for 11 am tomorrow (Wednesday the 18th).
I believe passing this legislation is of vital importance for political choice and fundamental fairness in our state’s election system. Please consider the following:
Alabama has the highest retention percentage required by any state to keep a party on the ballot at 20% (the next highest state is 10%, the national average is 2%, and some states including our neighbors in Mississippi and Florida do not require a ballot retention percentage at all). Any party that does not meet this burden currently needs signatures equal to 3% of the last vote for Governor, putting Alabama at the second most difficult ballot access percentage in the country behind only Oklahoma – and Oklahoma is also considering passage of legislation to ease its ballot access burdens. It is almost impossible for independents or parties to qualify under this standard unless they have a massive infusion of money from very wealthy donors as Americans Elect did in 2012, which is not normally the case with grassroots third party and independent campaigns.
From 1893 to 1971, a party could be on the ballot with no petition at all. In 1971 the legislature started requiring 5,000 signatures for new parties, but parties already in existence could stay on with no petition. It was not until 1982 that it became 1% of the statewide vote for Governor and a retention requirement was introduced at all. Alabama tripled petition signature requirements in 1995, reportedly in anger over the Patriot Party’s nomination of a candidate for county office who had earlier lost in the Democratic primary. The current bill SB221 does not change ballot access requirements for county office, and if sore losers were the real problem, that could have been addressed with separate legislation that did not impose draconian burdens on all candidates and their supporters running outside the two biggest parties.
In 2010, 56 of our 105 state house members ran unopposed (53%) and 13 of our 35 state senators ran unopposed (37%). I don’t have exact statistics for 2014, but suspect it was even less competitive – in fact, I don’t know of a single statewide, legislative, or Congressional race that was close during the 2014 general election, and if there were any, they were very few.
This is probably a major reason why, in a year when voter turnout nationwide was the lowest since 1942, Alabama’s turnout was less than 33% of the eligible electorate, again among the the very lowest in the country. http://www.electproject.org/2014g is the link for 2014 turnout data.
In 2014 Alabama was the ONLY state with a US Senate race and 4 statewide races that had only one candidate on the ballot, and one of only a very few states (you can count them on the fingers of one hand) to have no statewide third party or independent candidates.
In 2004, 2008, and 2012, Alabama was part of a small minority of states where the national minor party presidential campaigns, including the Libertarians and Greens, could only appear on the ballot as Independents (again, you can count them on one hand). Alabama has had no Statewide (and hardly any congressional) independent or minor party candidates on the ballot since 2002.
30 states have made ballot access for third party and independent candidates easier since the 1970s. Please help add Alabama to them.
I hope to be in Montgomery for tomorrow’s scheduled hearing, but if I am unable to get there or if you are too busy to talk to me tomorrow, please call me at 205-534-1622, especially if you have any questions or comments. I would also love to know if any of you have recommendations on which of your colleague I may be able to persuade on this issue if it reaches the floor of the Senate.
Paul Frankel
Outgoing State Director/Incoming Southern Regional Director
Our America Initiative (ouramericainitiative.com)
205-534-1622
Previously at IPR:
Alabama Constitution Party on How to Help Pass Ballot Access Bill SB221
Four Alabama State Senators Introduce Ballot Access Bill
Libertarian Party of Alabama calls for ballot access law reforms, announces issue coalition
Alabama, Oklahoma newspapers editorialize for ballot access reform
Constitution Party: Alabama’s Ballot Access Laws Too Restrictive
Alabama Ballot Access Bill Will Be Introduced Again
The bill passed 4-2. Now it must go to the Senate Rules Committee, which blocked it in 2013 and 2011.