[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [gpca-forum] 'Top-two' primary elections spell end for many minor parties, SF Chronicle, May 25

[Gerry Gras]

Here is an article from the Chronicle about what the top two
primary method means for "minor" parties.

Also, FYI, although Rich Gordon is in Menlo Park, i.e.
in San Mateo County, his district is partly in Santa Clara
County.  Dana and I are in his district.  But I have no
idea why Mr. Gordon is doing what he is doing.

Gerry


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[gpca-forum] 'Top-two' primary elections spell end for many
minor parties, SF Chronicle, May 25
Date: 	Fri, 6 Jun 2014 21:49:24 -0700
From: 	Mike Feinstein <mfeinstein at feinstein.org>
Reply-To: 	GPCA member general discussion <gpca-forum at cagreens.org>
To: 	GPCA member general discussion <gpca-forum at cagreens.org>



http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Top-two-primary-elections-spell-end-for-many-5504314.php

*'Top-two' primary elections spell end for many minor parties*
By John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle
May 25, 2014

Doomsday could be fast approaching for California's smallest political
parties.

With the coming of "top-two" primary elections in California, thanks to
passage of Proposition 14 in 2010, the Green, Peace and
Freedom, Libertarian, American Independent, and Americans Elect parties
find themselves in danger of disappearing from the state ballot,
joining the Prohibition, Socialist and Progressive parties in the mists
of California's history.

"We're getting wiped out by top two," said Michael Feinstein, spokesman
for the Green Party. "It's wiping out political diversity and
choice that voters now are not going to get."

Once a political party qualifies to appear on the state primary ballot,
California law sets out a couple of ways it can stay there.

First, the party can have official registration equal to 1 percent of
the votes cast in the most recent governor's election, which works out
to 103,004 registered voters, based on the 2010 race.

The second way allows them to have a much lower number of registered
voters, currently 11,832, but only if one or more of the
party's candidates can collect at least 2 percent of the vote in one
statewide general election.

But under the new election rules, which will be used for the first time
in a governor's race this year, only the two candidates with the
most votes advance to the Nov. 4 general election. With
the Democrats and Republicans having a stranglehold on those top spots,
there won't be any minor party candidates on the November ballot.

That means it's registration numbers or nothing for the minor parties.

It's doable

That's not necessarily a problem. The conservative American Independent
Party, which has been qualified for the California ballot since 1968,
had 472,536 registered voters as of April - well above the needed total.

The other minor parties, however, are rooting for a low-turnout election
in November.

In 2010, about 10.3 million Californians voted in the November election
for governor, a nearly 60 percent turnout. Using that year's qualifying
number of 103,004 registered voters, the Green Party, with a
registration of 109,157, and the Libertarian Party(114,656), are just
squeaking by, while the Peace and Freedom Party (77,594) and
theAmericans Elect Party (3,604) face ballot extinction.

"The top-two (primary) is making it difficult, but we're willing to rise
up to the challenge," said Gale Morgan, Northern California
vice chairman of the Libertarian Party.

In the 2010 election, every minor party had at least one candidate who
broke the 2 percent threshold in one or more statewide contest, keeping
them alive through this year.

While some of those minor party votes may have been protests against the
Republicans and Democrats on the ballot, the candidates also received
support from people who liked their stance on the issues, said
Feinstein, a Green who is the former mayor of Santa Monica.

"This disenfranchises everyone," he said of the top-two system.

Falling off

There's nothing unusual about parties falling off the California ballot.
Since 1910, when the statewide party nomination process began,
12 parties have disappeared, most after only a few years on the ballot.

The Communist Party, for example, was a recognized political party in
the state from 1934 to 1944, while the Townsend Party was on the ballot
from 1938 to 1942 and theIndependent Progressive Party from 1948 to 1954.

More recently, the Natural Law Party lost its right to appear on
California primary ballots in 2006, while the Reform Party disappeared
in 2002.

But the complaints from the state's smaller parties have had an effect.
A bill making its way through the Legislature, AB2351
by Assemblyman Rich Gordon, D-Menlo Park, would ease the pressure on
minor parties.

Changes afoot

The bill, which has the support of Secretary of State Debra Bowen, would
move the 2 percent test for minor party candidates from the top-two
general election to the wide-open primary contest. It would also allow
parties to stay qualified for primary elections if their registration is
more than one-third of 1 percent of the state's total registration. That
would lower the threshold to about 59,000 registered voters.

Gordon's bill is a start, said Feinstein. But it doesn't address other
concerns of the smaller parties, he said, including higher filing
fees, increased costs for printing ballot statements and a huge jump,
from 150 to 10,000, in the number of signatures needed to get on the
ballot without paying filing fees.

"If you have voices on the ballot, issues get play," Feinstein said.
Even if minor party candidates don't win, "I don't doubt they
create debates we need to have."

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