FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 19, 2009
Press Contact: Jordon M. Greene - jmgreene@ncfpe.com
Yesterday brought wonderful news to the State of North Carolina and the prospect of expanding free and equal elections in our state. On March 19, 2009 (as also reported in Ballot Access News) North Carolina State Senator Jim Jacumin (R-44 Burke and Caldwell Counties) filed a slightly altered version of the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Election’s “Electoral Freedom Act of 2009” that he will officially introduce into the North Carolina State Senate this coming Monday, March 23, 2009.
Though the bill is not exactly the same as when we presented it to Senator Jacumin it still addresses the concerns of the NCFPE and the citizens of North Carolina like you who value the right to vote. Senate Bill 731, the Electoral Freedom Act of 2009, in its current form will strike down the present requirement for new political parties in North Carolina to obtain signatures equal to 2% of the number of votes cast in the last election for Governor (i.e. 85,379 signatures required for new political parties to gain access to the 2010 or 2012 election ballot). Instead, new political parties would only be required to submit 10,000 signatures for full party access to the ballot according to the new bill. In addition, the bill addresses the issue of unaffiliated candidate’s access to the ballot. Currently, the bill drops the requirement for Unaffiliated Statewide candidates from the original 2% of the vote cast for Governor in the last election, to 5,000 signatures. Both of these requirement, if passed unchanged, will greatly reduce the burden on new political parties in North Carolina as well as Unaffiliated candidates, without causing any problems on election day, but simply giving back the right of the people to choose who represent them.
At this point, there is one issue with the bill that we feel needs to be addressed. That is the current area that deals with Unaffiliated District candidates in Section 2 of the bill, under part (a)(2&3). Currently Unaffiliated district candidates must obtain signatures equal 4% of the total number of registered voters in their district as the first day of their election year. Senator Jacumin’s “Electoral Freedom Act” lowers the requirement to 3% of the total number of registered voters in their district as of the first day of their election year. While this is a reduction, this percentage, for Congressional candidates, if applied to the 2008 voter registration numbers would require at the very least 11,072 signatures (District 1) and still as high as 15,451 signatures (District 9), an average of 12,882. The problem here, beyond the numbers still being much too burdensome to individual candidates, is the fact that the bill will require District candidates to obtain anywhere from two to three times as many signatures as a Statewide candidate must obtain, which was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1979 in the case Illinois State Bd. of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U.S. 173. Keeping this requirement would actually cause adverse effects for the Sate, possibly in the form of lawsuits over unequal protection of the law for District candidates, therefore we will be attempting to have Senator Jacumin amend the bill to cap the number of signatures required under the appropriate section to 5,000, in order to not violate the equal protection of the law clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution as decided in the aforementioned Supreme Court case.
Though the bill entirely leaves out changes that need to be made for Write-In candidate access or for political parties to retain ballot access, the bill is still an extremely good bill (with the revisions needed as mentioned above). These issues can be addressed later, and you can count on the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections, with your help, to continue to fight to get to these other important aspects. Yet, the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections PAC fully supports S731, the Electoral Freedom Act of 2009, and hopes and asks that you, no matter your political affiliation, will join with us in support of this important bill to return the North Carolina citizens’ right to vote. Please start know to be in frequent contact with your State Senator to urge them to support (and Co-Sponsor) Senator Jim Jacumin’s “Electoral Freedom Act of 2009” (Senate Bill 731).
Once the bill is introduce on Monday, and we find out what initial action is taken, or what committee it is put in, we will send out more information so that you can have the most affect at ensuring that this bill makes it through to become law.
###
North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections PAC - 2206 Planters Way - Lenoir, NC 28645 - 828-729-4509
www.NCFPE.com
Paid for by the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections
