Reason #9: Ballot Box Bullies Boxing out the Little Guy

Unfortunately, politicians from the D.O.P.es – our two “Dead Old Parties” – don’t just control the shape of the electoral map. They also hold the keys to the most important place in our democracy – the ballot box. Republicans and Democrats in state legislatures all across the country make the rules for who qualifies to be on the ballot. And, as you’d expect, they only make it easy for … Democrats and Republicans. If you aren’t a candidate nominated for office by the D.O.P.es, just getting your name or the name of your political party on voting sheets is like winning a hundred yard dash with an elephant on your back and a donkey tied to your ankles.

Politicians from the D.O.P.es – our two “Dead Old Parties” – don’t just control the shape of the electoral map. They also hold the keys to the most important place in our democracy – the ballot box.

Career politicians from the two big parties throw up so many roadblocks to third parties and independent candidates that most of them simply stay home. Recently, Cindy Sheehan just barely qualified to run against Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. She’s the first independent contender for congress in California in 12 years! That because, just to get her name on the same ballot as Pelosi, she had to gather thousands of signatures. Did Pelosi or her Republican foe have to get that many people to sign a petition endorsing their candidacies? Of course not. They play by different rules, because they made the rules.

The obstacle course independents have to run to get on the ballot is nothing compared to what third parties have to go through. Here in California, if you want to start a new party, you either have to convince almost 100,000 people to join it right away or you have to get nearly a million voters to sign a petition in support of its right to exist. If you can’t pull off one of these gargantuan feats, your party isn’t “qualified” to appear on the ballot.

Worse yet, all new parties have to qualify statewide or the Secretary of State won’t recognize them. That means if you want to form a smaller, more locally-based party, you can’t. The crooked rules concocted by the D.O.P.es force you to gather huge numbers of members from across the state. This absolutely crushes any chance for a grassroots movement to start small and grow incrementally. And believe me, that’s exactly the point.

The Ballot Conspiracy

As third party expert Richard Winger pointed out in his 1994 essay “The Importance of Ballot Access” , restrictive third party ballot requirements are fairly recent developments. In the 19th century, it was much easier for independent parties to field candidates for office. And many of them did quite well. The Republican Party itself started as a third party and quickly rose to replace the moribund “Whigs.” But then, in the early years of the 20th century, Democrats and Republicans conspired to obstruct independent challengers by writing laws that favored their candidates. Pretty soon, elephants and donkeys were the only choices available in most elections and viable third party challengers were an endangered species.

NEXT: Reason #10: Dealing from a Stacked Deck — the Rigged Seniority System