Arizona Greens looking for ballot access signatures
One of the harsh realities for smaller political parties in the United States is difficult ballot access. The Arizona Green Party is undertaking that task again. In a brief article at ABC15.com reporter Joe Balian says that the Green Party of Maricopa County has kicked off their part of the statewide effort, with a goal of bringing in 40,000 signatures over the next year.
The article also reports that the Arizona Green Party has secured ballot status three times in the past twenty years. The Green Party of Pima County and the Green Party of Yavapai County are joining the effort, with the Green Party of Maricopa County already reporting 1323 gathered. Close to 4000 signatures have been gathered so far, and the state party is looking to double their current volunteer base to 40.
There are two methods for the Green Party to be ballot-qualified for 2010. I think the newspaper article is badly worded, because I think what the party is doing is the registration method (which can only be done by a party that is already on the ballot). If the party can get slightly more than 20,000 registered voters by November 1, 2009, then it remains on the ballot. But if that can’t be done, the party can also be on in 2010 if it gets 20,449 signatures on a petition. I hope the Green Party can get its approximately 20,500 registrants, because if it can, it will stay on the ballot indefinitely. Just doing the petition is a stop-gap, because the petition must be done over and over again.
More details can be found at Ballot Access News including a long list of states where ballot access drives could be undertaken, but are not yet underway.