Having encountered Maine's third party ballot access process, I have come to the conclusion that it needs reform. I have come up with 3 major reforms (I may add more later) that need to be undertaken. Maine legislators are just now thinking about what issues to bring to the table, so it is a good time to try to get new initiatives past.
Please read the following blogpost, and, if you agree and you live in Maine, contact your two legislators* (or, if a non-incumbent was elected, your legislators-elect), and ask them to sponsor or vote for the following:
(1) If someone is going to run as a ballot-qualified (i.e. not a write-in) independent in Maine (this includes running in a non-qualified party), they must not have ben enrolled in a qualified party since March 1 of that year. This requirement needs to be removed for those who are running as Presidential electors, as they are essentially just stand-ins for the nominee.
(2) Using stickers to identify a write-in is only allowed in primary elections. It should also be allowed in general elections. If this is a technical problem, a solution should be found.
(3) When the person circulating a petition does not witness a person siging it, only the unwitnessed signatures should be stricken, not the entire petition.
(4) Finally, there ought to be only one deadline for applying for candidacy, and that is hte later, Secretary of State deadline. There should not be an earlier deadline to get the votes approved by the town clerks. Instead, there should be a requirement that town clerks certify all signatures brought to them one week or more prior to the Secretary of State deadline, and they should be allowed to use their discretion after that time.
If you would like to add anything to the list, please tell me so in the comments and I wil consider adding it.
That is all.
* One in the Maine House and one in the Maine Senate.
No comments:
Post a Comment