Ballot Access Case: WE WON!!!!

A huge thanks on behalf of and from the Maryland Libertarian Party to Mark Grannis and his firm for representing us in our fight to stay on the ballot in Maryland. Mark's firm, Wiltshire & Grannis released a statement that I posted here on Independent Word with the pdf versions of the complaint, motion and ruling attached to the post.

There are many other people we need to thank for this victory including Doug McNeil who has worked tirelessly and is our own official Ballot Access "Guru". This is not only a great victory for the MdLP and the Green Party it is a victory for those who desire more than the typical two choices at the polls and a victory for ballot initiatives in our state.

Now it is back to work to continue our never ending battle at defending Liberty. 

Maryland is killing participatory democracy

As The Sun's recent editorial noted, the right to petition almost no longer exists in Maryland ("Technicalities kill another petition," May 23). The Frederick petition is only the latest in a very long line of petition drives that have failed to qualify for the ballot in recent years. 

And this problem affects small political parties as well as ballot questions — currently, all three of Maryland's small parties have lost their status as recognized political parties and are no longer able to nominate candidates for public office. In particular, the Green Party, which has been getting more and more votes in every Baltimore City election, will be unable to nominate candidates for this year's election unless its ballot access is restored by July 1. 

But fortunately, political parties are more permanent organizations than referendum and initiative groups, and we have decades of experience with ballot access law. So Maryland's Libertarian and Green Parties have joined together as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit attempting to reestablish the fundamental right to petition that Maryland voters once enjoyed. The rule in Maryland has always been that whatever our policy differences, we're all in the same boat on ballot access. 

Each party submitted about 15,000 petition signatures to regain its political party status to the Maryland State Board of Elections, but election officials will not recertify either party — even though they admit that more than the required 10,000 registered voters have signed each of our petitions. We argue that they are seriously misinterpreting the case law and applying a signature verification standard that is much more strict than is legally justified. 

Do we really want only the Democratic and Republican parties to be able to run candidates for public office? No minor party or independent candidates, no initiatives or referenda — and no participatory democracy? We think not. 

Doug McNeil, Baltimore

Tim Willard, Gaithersburg 

The writers are the plaintiff's representatives for the Maryland Libertarian Party and Green Party, respectively.

A Step In Right Direction for Ballot Access

Good news for ballot access: Maryland Court of Appeals okays "imperfect signatures", meaning a doctor's signature would qualify on a petition.

Here is a link that gives a little detail.

And the Baltimore Sun covered it on their blog.

A small, respectful correction to the Baltimmore Sun is that the Maryland Libertarian Party turned in nearly 15,000 signatures.