Michigan Third Parties Launch Campaign to Lower State’s Ballot Access Requirements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14th 2008

LANSING, MI – The Michigan Third Parties Coalition, representing the state’s Green, Libertarian, Reform, Socialist, and U.S. Taxpayers Parties, as well as independent voters throughout the State of Michigan, is launching a statewide campaign to pressure State legislators to lower Michigan’s requirements for political parties to gain ballot access in the State to no more than 5,000 signatures.

Under current Michigan election law, a political party can only gain ballot access in Michigan if it turns in 38,013 valid signatures with a 180 day period; an impossible task, the Coalition argues, without tens of thousands of dollars to hire paid petitioners. This criterion must be met for a Michigan political party to nominate even a single candidate for public office, whether federal, state, or local. With such restrictive barriers to participation, even Republican Presidential frontrunner John McCain’s own Reform Institute gave Michigan a grade of F on its ballot-access scorecard and urged state lawmakers to make remedial action on ballot-access a priority.

“For all practical purposes, ballot lines, in the State of Michigan, are a commodity for sale,” said Socialist Party of Michigan Chair Matt Erard. “The extraordinarily excessive ballot access requirements in Michigan only serve to measure a party’s financial resources – not its voter appeal.”

The requirements for parties to retain and qualify for ballot access are determined by the number of votes cast for Secretary of State and Governor respectively. But Coalition members argue that such logic is faulty as the higher voter participation, the harder it is to get on the ballot.

“Increased voter participation at the polls should not coincide with voters having fewer options the next time they come to cast their ballots said Green Party of Michigan Chair Fred Vitale. “If anything, it should be the reverse.”

The Coalition’s website cites Richard Winger, the nation’s foremost expert on ballot access who notes that historically, even the slightest ballot access barriers have been sufficient for preventing cluttered ballots. The Coalition’s website argues that, “any ballot access barrier beyond 5,000 valid signatures is certain to go beyond excess in its attempt to fulfill this purpose and restrict the right of voters to vote for serous candidates with widespread support.”

U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan Chair Jerry Van Sickle argued that, “Michigan’s restrictive ballot access requirements are one of many measures enacted by the State’s Democratic and Republican parties to limit challengers from opponents.”

“If candidates of the Democratic or Republican parties had to go through the same hurdles to get on the ballot as the candidates of new minor parties or independents, they would often be unable to qualify” said Reform Party of Michigan Chair Matt Crehan.

Coalition members hope that this campaign and the wider Voters’ Bill of Rights initiative it drafted last month will help to curb such discriminatory requirements and ensure free and fair elections.

“Recent actions, and lack of action, by our state legislature has shown the public that we may not have the best and brightest representing us in Lansing,” says Libertarian chair Bill Hall. “That is the unfortunate result of having a very small pool of potential candidates to draw from, as independents and lesser parties are excluded from the process”.

The Coalition is organizing a letter-writing and lobbying effort to ensure that State legislators are aware of the issue. Members intend to meet with House Ethics and Elections Committee Chair Marc Corriveau (D-Northville) in the coming week and to testify before the Committee soon after. The Coalition is also seeking endorsements for the campaign from other Michigan organizations. Sample letters to State legislators are available on the Coalition’s website at: http://www.mithirdparties.org.

CONTACT: Michigan Third Party Coalition (MTPC): michiganthirdparties@yahoo.com
Green – Fred Vitale, chair, 313-885-3518
Libertarian - Bill Hall, chair, 616 460-9516, or Will Tyler White, executive committee, 517 349-3806
Reform - Matt Crehan, chair, 231 755-5252
Socialist - Matt Erard, chair, 248 765-1605
U.S. Taxpayers - Jerry Van Sickle, chair, 231 848-7257