The Tennessee Two-Step: Trampling Independents
... as long as you're a Democrat or a Republican.
Over the New Year’s holiday, Richard Winger at Ballot Access News posted on a partisan flip in elections commissions in Tennessee:
Because Republicans won more seats than Democrats in the House of Representatives, in the November 2008 election, control of all 95 county commissions now switches from Democratic majority to Republican majority
According to Winger, the state’s Constitution says the party with the most seats in the House gets to choose three out of the five commissioners for each county. The party with the second most House members gets the other two. In other words, in Tennessee, two party rule is virtually enshrined in the Constitution. And the Republicans and Democrats have made damn sure that they are the only two options available to voters, as Winger pointed out in 2007:
Tennessee requires a petition signed by 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. The petition must say that the signers are members. The petition is due 4 months before the primary.
No group has complied with this requirement since 1968.
In forty years, not a single third party has even appeared on the ballot in Tennessee. And with the two dominant parties taking turns running the state’s elections, the chances for reform are exactly slim and none.
PS: A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed Richard Winger, one of the country’s foremost experts on restrictive ballot access laws, minor parties and independent political movements. Check it out here.
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