Socialist Party USA Candidate Faces Ballot Access Challenges
Free Speech Radio News
Monday, 9 June 2008

Last fall, while the presidential hopefuls from the two major parties were gearing up for a season of primary elections, the Socialist Party USA chose their 2008 presidential nominee. He's Brian Moore, of Spring Hill, Florida, just north of Tampa. But, as Seán Kinane [pronounced kuh-NANN] reports, being the nominee of a minor party does not necessarily mean you'll voters will get to vote for him or her.

Moore beat out four other Socialist Party USA candidates on the third ballot at their national convention in St. Louis last October. But unlike the Democrats and Republicans, the elected nominee from the Socialist Party USA, one of several socialist parties in the country, does not automatically get on the ballot in any state. Instead, Moore said, he has to "work at it and earn each state".

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But in most states, Moore said, it's much more difficult to get listed on the ballot. Many require tens of thousands of signatures or expensive filing fees.

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IN SOME STATES, ALTERNATIVE PARTIES HAVE EARNED AUTOMATIC ACCESS. SOMETIMES THEY NOMINATE OTHER THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES TO RUN ON THEIR TICKET. MOORE EXPLAINS HOW THIS HAS PROVEN TO BE ANOTHER OBSTACLE.

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The Socialist Party USA has about three thousand members across the country. Instead of working for his campaign, Moore said, volunteers work to coordinate access to each state's ballot.

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Moore's platform includes an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, free and accessible national healthcare, and transferring ownership of corporations to the workers. He raises campaign money in order to collect signatures, either through traveling to the states or to pay professional petitioners. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain have been raising millions, if not tens of millions of dollars each month, but Moore has his sights set on much less lofty figures.

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Moore is already on the ballot in Vermont and will qualify in six other states soon. He expects to be on the ballot of at least twenty states by November's election. From WMNF in Tampa, I'm Seán Kinane.

PART 2:

As ballot access issues are still a major challenge for most third parties, But it's not just third party candidates who have ballot access problems, many voters do too. Georgetown Professor Pete Edelman is formerly of the Civil Rights Division at US Department of Justice has taken a long look voter access. Over 40 years ago he traveled the country with then Senator Robert F Kennedy to see first how poverty and racism prevailed in stopping many in the country from voting. Today as he judges the political landscape of voter ID's and proof of citizenship requirements, Edelman says even though some things have changed, some things have stated the same.

This story can be found online at www.fsrn.org.