[EL] litmus test for Americans Elect?

[David A. Holtzman]

Richard Winger's Ballot Access News post (linked by Rick Hasen below) is 
based on a Christian Science Monitor article 
<http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0729/Americans-Elect-launches-centrist-third-party-bid-amid-Washington-dysfunction>.

The article says "Americans Elect will use an appointed 'Candidate 
Certification Committee' to -- as [an AE official] said on a recent 
press call -- deal with 'candidate qualification and making sure we have 
candidates who bridge the center of American public opinion.'"

The article then goes off in a direction it didn't need to go, 
suggesting that AE officials might therefore overrule AE's own voters 
and hand-pick candidates, because OTHER third parties have suffered from 
(quoting my college contemporary Micah Sifry now) "'stubborn and 
inflexible leadership'" so AE might serve the desires of "'a small group 
of decision-makers who already think they know what's best for the 
country.'"

But the article fails to mention a key AE rule:AE voters will nominate a 
ticket, and THE TWO MEMBERS (President & V.P.) OF AN AE TICKET MAY NOT 
BE MEMBERS OF THE SAME PARTY.That rule will form "bridges" between 
parties or between party members and independents, and should ensure 
that at least some of the tickets running in the AE primary (the 
candidates will be tickets, not individuals) will in fact "bridge" the 
center.That's a simple and fair explanation of the AE official's statement.

I can't say which surprises me more: that the Christian Science Monitor 
left out such a key fact, or that the pro-ballot access people jumped on 
AE so quickly and so hard (look at the comments on Richard Winger's blog 
. . . do you think they're jealous of the instant success of a third 
party that's not their own?).

- dah




On 8/1/2011 2:05 PM, Rick Hasen wrote:
> I thought this post from Richard Winger was very interesting:
>
> http://www.ballot-access.org/2011/07/31/americans-elect-official-suggests-candidate-certification-committee-will-bar-candidates-from-nomination-process-based-on-their-political-views/
>
> -- 
> Rick Hasen
> Professor of Law and Political Science
> UC Irvine School of Law
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> http://electionlawblog.org
>
>
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> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
> david at holtzmanlaw.com
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