Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Does NY Have to Many Qualified Political Parties?


The New York Times had a recent editorialized on the issue of the proliferation of party lines on the New York ballot.

There are now 8 parties that have official ballot lines in New York, some with tiny numbers of registered party members. Fitting all of these parties on ballots, including others who never make the 50,000 vote cut, has resulted in long confusing ballots with type too small to easily read.

The editorial asks: Why all these separate parties? New York politicians endorse this system, called fusion voting, because they can pick up extra votes on the extra ballot lines. The mini-parties, which often push single issue policies, mostly survive by nominating the same big-name candidates of the two major parties. That is especially true during elections for Governor every four years, when state law requires a party to earn 50,000 votes in order to stay on future ballots.

The editorial ends: New York lawmakers should work to make the ballot less of a muddle. One way to make matters simpler for voters would be to require a politician to pick one party and one party line. If every party had a different candidate, the extraneous parties would have to pick good candidates, or simply disappear.

Another option is tightening the rules on how parties gain ballot lines.

Political Parties | 2014 Vote Total for Gov. | Current Registered Active Voters:

DEM | 1,811,672 | 5,262,004 (Democrat Party)
REP | 1,234,951 | 2,563,924 (Republican Party)
CON | 250,419 | 148,484 (Conservative Party)
GRE | 184,419 | 22,928 (Green Party)
WOR | 126,244 | 43,170 (Working Family Party)
IND | 77,762 | 433,659 (Independent Party)
WEP | 53,802 | 12 (Woman's Equality Party)
REF | 51,492 | 10 (Reform Party)

There are 5,587 voters registered in other parties and 2,448,701 voters that declined to select a party on their registration form.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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