Tell Your State Senators and Represenatives to Lower Michigan's Ballot Access Requirements for Minor Parties

CLICK HERE to Find Your State Representative's Contact Information

CLICK HERE to Find Your State Senator's Contact Information

Below is a sample letter to send to your State Representative and State Senator:

Dear _______

I am writing to ask you to sponsor legislation to lower the petition signature requirements for Michigan’s minor parties to qualify for ballot access. Michigan law currently requires a political party to submit 38,024 signatures, including 100 signatures from half of all Michigan Congressional districts, all within a 180 day period to run any ballot-qualified candidates for any office in a Michigan election. This extremely restrictive requirement makes it effectively impossible for any new political party to qualify for ballot access without spending tens of thousands of dollars on a petition drive. For the majority of Michigan’s political parties which do not have such financial resources, no matter how large or active their membership or support base, qualifying for ballot access under current Michigan election law is an impossible task.

Michigan’s current ballot access requirements are among the most restrictive in the United States. While the State of Michigan requires a new party submit over 38,000 valid signatures, the states of Colorado and Louisiana require only 1,000 and the state of Delaware requires only 290. The state of New York has a population of nearly twice that of Michigan but requires only a fraction of the number of petition signatures that the State of Michigan requires. In the states of Florida, Mississippi, and Vermont, a political party needs only to have organized itself in order to become ballot-qualified. As Richard Winger, the nation’s foremost expert on ballot access notes, “ballots are to permit the voters to vote for the candidates of their choice. If there are voters who wish to vote for a candidate, and that candidate is omitted (against his or her will) from the ballot, then the ballot is faulty. It isn't doing its job. The purpose of ballots is to facilitate the wishes of voters, NOT to control whom they vote for."

In 1985 the 9th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrote that, "a state may not require a preliminary showing of voter support as an end in itself. Denying ballot access is permissible only if and to the extent that it is necessary as a means to further other legitimate state interests, including avoidance of the voter confusion that may result from the presence on the ballot of too many frivolous candidates." As Winger has noted, however, history has repeatedly shown that the very slightest ballot access barriers are sufficient for preventing cluttered ballots. In the State of Michigan, 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 serious candidates with significant support.

The State of Michigan is additionally among a minority of states that will not allow candidates to list their party labels on the ballot even if they qualify for ballot access as independents. In many cases candidates nominated by Michigan minor parties without ballot access are forced to appear on the ballot with “no party affiliation” or on the ballot line of another qualified party despite the distinct and/or separate partisan affiliations they hold in their campaigns. The result is that candidates’ listed affiliations on the ballot do not reflect their true partisan affiliations and voters are often inadequately informed or even misled about whom they’re voting for. The potential for voter confusion resulting from the very rare occurrence of large numbers of candidates on the ballot pales in comparison to the potential for voter confusion resulting from candidates whose party affiliations are misidentified on the ballot due to their inability to qualify with their true partisan labels.

The foundation of our democratic system in the United States and Michigan is the ability of citizens to vote for whomever they choose in elections to represent them in government. This fundamental and foundational right is curtailed whenever the candidates of serious political parties are denied the right to appear on the ballot or prevented from appearing with their true partisan label. As Article 1 I § 1 of the Michigan Constitution states, “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection.” Any legislator committed to the democratic rights of Michigan voters and their right to make informed choices has nothing to fear from easing Michigan’s ballot access requirements.

With the foundation of the Michigan Third Parties Coalition, representing nearly all minor parties participating in Michigan elections, Michigan’s restrictive ballot access requirements have recently been the subject of widespread coverage in the state, local and national news media. Michigan voters support a long-overdue change to these requirements to make Michigan elections fairer. I urge you to sponsor legislation that will lower the requirements for Michigan parties to qualify for ballot access to no more than 5,000 valid signatures. The issue of lowering Michigan’s ballot access requirements is not just one of numbers, but one that goes to the core of our state’s democratic system.

Sincerely,

Your Name