Republicans and Democrats Fight Over Ballot Access for Green Party

As Texans celebrate Independence Day, the Libertarian Party calls for voters to declare independence from corrupt political parties that try to use courts, tricks, and legislation to subvert the will of the voters.

"Recent events have further confirmed the corrupt practices of the Republican and Democratic parties in manipulating elections to their benefit" says Libertarian Party of Texas state chair Pat Dixon.   "They prefer lawsuits, manipulations, and prohibitions.  We prefer empowering voters to make choices in an open competition."

Recently the Democratic Party of Texas filed a lawsuit to remove the Green Party from the 2010 general election ballot.  The Texas Secretary of State had certified the Green Party for the ballot after validating approximately 92,000 petition signatures.  It was found that funding for the petition effort originated from an out of state Republican donor through a corporate entity that operated the petition drive.  The presumed motive for the Republican Party is to attempt to damage Democratic candidates, in particular gubernatorial candidate Bill White, by splitting the vote between Green Party and Democratic Party candidates.  These ties between the funding of petition gathering and out of state Republican Party donations has led to allegations that Republican governor Rick Perry and the Republican Party are behind the Green Party petition effort. The Democratic Party based the lawsuit on the allegation that Texas law forbids donations from a corporate entity to fund petition drives.  Last week state District Judge John Dietz, a Democratic Party elected official, ruled in favor of the Democratic Party.

The Libertarian Party of Texas is alarmed that Judge Dietz removed the Green Party from the Texas ballot.

"If a judge can remove one political party from the ballot today, what would prevent another judge from removing the Libertarian Party or any other party from the ballot tomorrow?" asked Dixon.

The Libertarians condemned both the Republican and Democratic parties for manipulating the ballot access laws instead of running on their records and their plans for the future.

"We would rather have a fair fight on a level playing field than use the power of the state to protect us from fair competition," Dixon said.

In 2004 the Libertarian Party had to conduct a petition drive to remain on the ballot.  They succeeded in this effort despite some of the most oppressive ballot access restrictions in the United States.  At that same time the Ralph Nader presidential campaign failed in a petition drive to appear on the 2004 ballot.

All funding for the Libertarian's petition drive came from its own donors.  No donations came from corporate entities.  

The Libertarian Party recognizes that there is no motive for either Democrats or Republicans to support their efforts. Research (1, 2) has shown that Republican and Democratic voters are equally likely to vote for Libertarian candidates.  Libertarians can appeal to Republican voters on free market principles and to Democratic voters on personal liberty principles.

The Libertarian Party has worked over several legislative sessions to reform election laws and promote more reasonable ballot access laws.  Unfortunately both Democratic and Republican state legislators have become increasingly hostile to such efforts.  Additionally, Libertarians have had to fight introduction of more restrictive election laws in recent years.  Last year the party was successful in defeating HB 1982 (3), which would have introduced unjustified and prohibitive requirements on minor party candidates and would have imposed a $37 million burden on taxpayers over the next decade.

"Republicans now play Machiavellian games to manipulate the vote by placing the Green Party on the ballot, yet propose laws to further restrict choice on the ballot" says Dixon.  "Democrats are no better, claiming they defend the rights of voters yet file lawsuits against minor parties.  Clearly, neither party is sincere in their concern for the voter.  This is all an effort by these corrupt parties to control how votes get split."

Dixon proposes electoral reform, instead of lawsuits and manipulations, to solve the vote splitting issue. He is a proponent of Approval Voting (4), in which voters would not have to split their vote and the candidate with the highest approval would win.

"Defending choice on the ballot is consistent with the Libertarian Party's work with independent candidates and other parties, including the Green Party, to foster competition and choice in elections" says state chair Pat Dixon.  "We understand having other parties and independent candidates on the ballot can split our vote and result in lower votes cast for Libertarians.  Regardless of political ramifications, Libertarians remain committed in principle to defend the rights of voters."

The Libertarian Party maintains that greater inclusion of candidates and parties has not posed problems in the past.  Before 1967, any party could be on the Texas ballot with no petition at all.  It just had to hold a state convention, plus county conventions in any 20 counties.  Texas never had more than six parties on its ballot in the entire history of government-printed ballots, which started  in Texas in 1903. 

State committee member Michael Lee (5) offered the following message to the Green Party: "We believe the voters of Texas deserve as many choices as possible and we wish you well in your endeavors to fight the entrenched politicians in Austin and Washington, D.C."

Libertarian state Attorney General candidate Jon Roland (6) added "We hope to have candidates of the Green Party join us on the ballot, in debate, and in the softball games we have long enjoyed playing against one another."

Dixon added "Voters should no longer be dependent on corrupt political parties that try to rig the game by making choices for them.  Voters need to declare their independence and be free to make their own choices this November.  We don't know if the Green Party will be on the ballot, but Libertarians will."

1.     Public Policy polling shows Libertarians draw from Democrats and Republican equally: http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/10/challenging-cw-on-libertarian-votes.html

2.     Ohio study show Libertarians voters come from Democratic and Republican parties equally:  http://lpo.org/news/press-releases/233-libertarian-voters-come-from-democratic-and-republican-parties-nearly-equally.html

3.     Libertarian Party defeats HB 1892: http://lptexas.com/042109NewsRelease.html

4.     Pat Dixon's article on Approval Voting: http://www.austinpost.org/content/a-modest-proposal-approval-voting

5.     Michael Lee, LP Texas state committee member: mlee952@yahoo.com

6.     Jon Roland , Libertarian candidate for Attorney General: jon@jonroland.org