Richard Winger reports at Ballot Access News that the American Freedom Party, a white nationalist political party, has gained ballot status in Mississippi:
On August 11, the Mississippi Secretary of State informed the American Freedom Party that it is now a ballot-qualified party. The American Freedom Party was formerly known as American Third Position. It ran Merlin Miller for president in 2012. Miller was not on the ballot in Mississippi in 2012.
Miller himself left the American Freedom Party last year. The 2016 presidential nominee of the American Freedom Party is Bob Whitaker.
BAN also reports that the Prohibition Party’s application for ballot status in Mississippi was rejected, but that they are likely to eventually succeed:
The Mississippi Secretary of State has rejected the application of the Prohibition Party to be a qualified party. This is an update and reversal to the post of an hour ago. BAN is attempting to learn what was defective in the party’s application.
…
The reason the Prohibition Party’s application for qualified party status has been denied so far in Mississippi is that the party hasn’t yet furnished documentation that the state party is affiliated with the national party. That deficiency is likely to be overcome soon.
Ds and Rs miss deadlines in many states with impunity.
Meanwhile in Texas, both major parties miss the statutory deadline for naming their presidential candidates and nobody cares.
Found it: “Mississippi: on September 5, two days before the deadline for qualified parties to submit their presidential elector candidates, the Justice Party submitted its list. On September 10, after it was too late to amend the list, state election officials told the Justice Party that one of its presidential elector candidates is not a registered voter. He had thought he was registered, but his registration had been canceled after he was convicted of a crime in 2007, and he was not aware of the cancellation.
The State then started printing ballots without the Justice Party’s presidential nominee on the ballot, even though in past years, Mississippi has printed presidential candidates on the ballot even though they did not submit a complete list of presidential elector candidates. Specifically, in 1972 and 1980 the Socialist Workers Party did not submit a complete list of elector candidates in Mississippi.”
http://ballot-access.org/2012/10/27/ballot-access-news-october-2012-print-edition/
I think that was the problem, some fuck-up with the paperwork, and too late to correct it. I’ll see if I can find the exact reasoning, I think BAN covered it at the time.
They can be gotten, just like signatures (been there done that). Sometimes the bigger challenge is actually getting them to the SOS on time…
“And submit a full slate of electors, which is why Rocky Anderson didn’t make the ballot in 2012, despite the Justice Party being ballot qualified in Mississippi.”
At that point, the state it isn’t even asking that you have at least a modicum of support, it’s asking that you actually have real, living, nameable human beings as candidates for the six offices being elected.
Some may fin it surprising that they were so fair to the LP when they didn’t have to be, though. At least some Republicans think we cost them votes, and Mississippi government is dominated by Republicans.
No great surprise that Mississippi treats Socialists harshly.
Mississippi treats different parties differently in this regard.
In 2008, for example, the SPUSA was trying to get their electors to the Secretary of State by the dedline. The Alabama deadline for petition signatures was that same day, and Jake Witmer and myself went to Montgomery and met some other people there to do a last day turn in on the Barr petition. Then we headed off to Mississippi to handle the turn-in of the SPUSA electors. Somewhere around Selma, I realized that my relying on memory was wrong and there was no way we would make it to Jackson before the office closed. I called the SPUSA candidate, Brian Moore, and he arranged for a courier to deliver the paperwork to the SOS. The courier called ahead, and the SOS assured him they were still there and would accept the paperwork if he was a few minutes lates. However, whe he got there, they refused to unlock the door or take the paperwork through the crack under the door. Meanwhile, the Barr paperwork in Mississippi was deficient in some regard, and the SOS went out of their way to call the LP about that and allow for it to be corrected. If the SOS wanted to screw the LP that would have been yet another ballot access failure that year.
And submit a full slate of electors, which is why Rocky Anderson didn’t make the ballot in 2012, despite the Justice Party being ballot qualified in Mississippi.
And if I recall correctly, all they then have to do place a presidential candidate on the ballot is pay a tiny filing fee.
It is, crazy how more parties didn’t take advantage of it earlier. You just have to file some paperwork and submit a list of state party officers.
Must be real easy to qualify for the ballot in Mississippi.
Whether or not a candidate has bothered to get themselves on the ballot as a new party in MS, should be the litmus test for whether a candidate/party has any interest in being on the ballot at all.
This is great news for both parties, as well as for the Veterans Party which had qualified in MS earlier. There’s no reason the other active alt. parties can’t do the same.
I do think Hedges will perform well for the Prohibitionists. He’s by far the best spokesman the party has, and they really fucked up when they didn’t nominate him in 2012.
Well, okay then! 😉
I’m only a citizen journalist so I should be held to a lower standard.
Tsk, tsk, tsk… William… really? Do as good as 1988? You’re a journalist. I expect proper English! 🙂
They now have full access to the Pennock Trust so they will be able to get on the ballot in several more states. I don’t expect them to do as good as 1988 when they received 8,000 votes but they should do better than the near 2,000 they received in 2004.
Define “strong”. I certainly expect them to perform better than they did in ’12, but they haven’t even hit above the two thousand vote mark since ’88.
2016 will be a strong year for the Prohibition Party.
Go Drys! Jim Hedges for president!