Michigan Third Parties Coalition


Member Parties	Third Parties Vow to End Primaries and Political Discrimination For Immediate Release 11/12/07 LANSING, MI - The Michigan Third Party Coalition (MTPC), representing the state’s Green, Libertarian, Reform, Socialist, and U.S. Taxpayers Parties, is throwing its support behind the lawsuit brought by Berl Schwartz of the City Pulse Newspaper and Mark Grebner of Practical Political Consultants, among others, to strike down the current primary law as unconstitutional. “The Act creates a legal duopoly — a monopoly held by two institutions, the Michigan Democratic Party and the Michigan Republican Party — and ensures the continuation of the duopoly by forbidding them from transferring full ownership (of voter lists) to any other entity,” the complaint reads. Although the majority of Michiganians are either independent or nonvoting, millions of their tax dollars help Democrat and Republican minorities choose and promote their candidates. If political power is inherently equal, then Michigan’s primary system constitutes political discrimination against independents and alternate parties, who select and promote their candidates without taxpayer funding or assistance. Tied to the primary is publicity from the media, whose coverage of the primaries leaves the impression there are only two parties with candidates. This bias continues through the general election. For example, often only 2 of 5 candidates for the same office are invited to debate. The timing problem of national primaries should be solved by federal action. The U.S. is the only major country in the world without uniform national ballot access laws. Either every state should have a primary with all parties on the same date, or none should have a primary. Parties can select candidates at their own expense by convention or caucus, as they did prior to 1912. It is time to end the arbitrary and unfair primary system. Designed and implemented by the old party machines to control the process, it is a recurring point of contention as each party tries to tweak it to their best advantage. If Michigan eliminates its primary, other states could follow and prompt a federal solution. MTPC is dedicated to a political future that lives up to our Constitution. That means either every party in the primary, or no publicly funded primary. It is an essential step towards equality for every party and all potential voters. If legislators will not act, then the public must. Michigan Third Parties Coalition Drafts Voters' Bill of Rights The Michigan Third Parties Coalition has drafted a Michigan Voters' Bill of Rights outlining concrete proposals to fix Michigan's electoral system and ensure that voters have the unequivocal right to cast a secure ballot for whichever candidates best match their preferences. While the MTPC hopes that the Voters Bill of Rights can eventually be incorporated into the Michigan Constitution, we are asking all Michigan voters and civic organizations to put the pressure on your legislators to add a much of it as possible to Michigan election law statutes in the meantime. Contact information for your State Senators and Represenatives is available on the Contact page above. If your organization would like to endorse the Michigan Voters' Bill of Rights, please email us at: michiganthirdparties@yahoo.com Why A Voters Bill of Rights is Needed Current electoral law in Michigan effectively limits political power to two parties. It says a major political party is "Each of the two political parties whose candidate for the office of secretary of state received the highest and second highest number of votes ..." (Act 116 of 1954, Sec. 16). Election laws regulate how these two parties shall participate in taxpayer-funded primaries to choose their candidates, while rules for all other parties do not include this government-subsidized selection process. This monetary benefit to the political power of only two parties constitutes Government enforced discrimination against those who are independent or members of other parties. The public is then spoon-fed pabulum from these two parties for six months while the media covers the primary as if they are the only ones on the ballot in November. And guess which two parties are allowed in the debates? These obstacles are almost impossible to overcome. Add gerrymandering and the ability of the duopoly in power to write new laws whenever threatened, and their stranglehold on power becomes lethal. Nonpartisan races show voters will elect people other than Republicans or Democrats, as they have by electing numerous independents and five Libertarian city council members in recent years, including two Mayors-pro-tem (Owosso and Hazel Park). Beyond local elections however, the burden of complying with complicated campaign finance laws and raising enormous sums of money is extremely difficult unless you are wealthy or have developed, over decades, a well-oiled party machine that knows all the loopholes in the laws. Democrats and Republicans should not have a stranglehold on power -- their existence is not written into the constitution. However, it has been written into Michigan election law by those two parties to effectively suppress any challengers. Although some scholars consider these laws unconstitutional, the increasingly politicized courts have blithely enabled and condoned them. Since the two parties in power are not inclined to voluntarily cede their control of the process, and court challenges to these biased laws are likely doomed to failure, a ballot initiative may be needed to change the Michigan Constitution. The other alternative is to reexamine the entire document at a Constitutional Convention, scheduled for the ballot in 2010. If that is the eventual scenario, it is imperative that #11 be enacted prior to delegate selection (nonpartisan election of Constitutional Convention delegates). Then, independents and alternate party members are more easily promoted and elected as delegates to the convention. Otherwise the Constitutional Convention will be a free ticket for the two parties in power to continue writing the rules in their favor. Voters Bill of Rights Election laws and regulations shall be identical for all parties. The requirement to qualify for statewide ballot access shall not exceed 5,000 valid petition signatures. Public funding of primaries shall be eliminated. No candidate shall be prohibited from participating in any public debate. Instant Runoff Voting shall be instituted statewide. Rotating ballot position shall be instituted statewide. The ability to vote without producing a picture ID shall not be denied. Same-day voter registration shall be available in every precinct. Absentee voting by choice shall be instituted statewide. Voting machines with verifiable hard-copy ballots shall be required. Candidates qualified as independents have the right to list their party affiliation on the ballot. Congressional districts shall be drawn along municipal boundaries by population by a nonpartisan commission. Delegates for a Michigan Constitutional Convention shall be selected in a nonpartisan election. The enumeration of these rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people to ensure fair, equal, open and honest elections. Click here to Read The Full Language of the Michigan Voters Bill of Rights

Third Parties Vow to End Primaries and Political Discrimination