OR Independent Party Internet Primary

Thanks to Ballot Access News for this post.

The Independent Party, which is ballot-qualified in Oregon, released the results of its party-sponsored primary on July 30. The party mailed a passcode to all its registered members, via postal mail, at great expense to the party. The passcode enabled the registered members of the party to vote on the internet. You also could use snail mail. Only 4% of the members of the party voted using the Internet.

But just as interesting was the fact that Oregon permitted Fusion this year for the first time in more than 100 years, allowed Write-Ins, and had a "Non of the Above" on the ballot.

There were Democrats, Republicans, Greens, and Libertarians on the ballot.

RULES

1. Upon login, each voter will see displayed a ballot consisting of choices for the contests in the districts in which they can vote.

2. Partisan races in which there are no candidates will not appear on the ballot. These positions remain “vacant.”

3. If a candidate is seeking cross-nomination, the name of the other party which has nominated the candidate will be indicated on the ballot.

4. The name of the candidate on the ballot will include a hyperlink to the candidate’s website.

5. Ballots will include a write-in line in each contest.

6. The ballots will include the voter option “none of the above” in each contest. The votes “cast” for none of the above will be tallied for informational purposes and to survey members if they would like to see that option in future elections.

7. Votes will be tallied electronically under the control of the vendor at its secure server. The candidate who receives the greatest number of votes cast in each contest will be declared the nominee of the Independent Party for that office.
* If a write in candidate receives the greatest number of votes cast, that candidate will be declared the winner of the contest.
* If there is a tie for the highest number of votes cast, the position will be declared “vacant” without a winning candidate.

Some people say "If neither Google nor the US Department of Defense can secure their sites, why would we think that these political parties or a county election office can do so?" I have been voting by the Internet for annual companies' stockholder voting for a long time. There are many vendors who have perfected this method. Politics has gotten in the way of technology growth.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Oregon Independent Party to Hold Internet Primary‏

The Oregon Independent Party is a ballot-qualified party in Oregon. It has 54,920 registered members, which is 2.7% of the number of registered voters in the state. Oregon only holds primaries for parties with registration membership of 5% or more. This year, the major party primaries were on May 18.

The Independent Party has so many members, it decided to not nominating by convention or caucus, instead it is holding its own primary, at its own expense, via the internet. The party is sending a postal letter to every member, giving him or her a unique ID number. That number can then be used by that voter to vote in the party's on-line primary during July.

For more information about the process, use the above link.

Because Oregon legalized fusion last year, the party has many contested primaries. For Governor, the party has a 3-candidate race: two members of the Independent Party (Jerry Wilson and Richard Esterman), and the Democratic nominee, John Kitzhaber. For U.S. House in the 3rd district, the Independent Party primary is between the Green Party nominee and the Libertarian Party nominee. For the 4th and 5th districts, the Independent Party primary is between the Democratic and Republican nominees. For all state and federal offices combined, there are 77 candidates in the party's primary.

On June 22 the Secretary of State rejected a complaint by the Democratic Party that the Independent Party's nomination procedures are unlawful.

The Independent Party was founded in 2005 by supporters of Ralph Nader, and others, who were frustrated that in 2005, the Oregon legislature passed a bill that made it far more difficult for independent candidates to get on the ballot. That 2005 law was repealed in 2009. It said that primary voters could not sign independent candidate petitions.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us