[EL] Minor Party Becomes a Major Party?

Fri Dec 5 10:22:17 PST 2014

Most states don't use the terminology "major party" or "minor party."  Those are really political science terms, not election law terms.
But if one assumes that a "major party" is a party that is entitled to its own government-administered primary, then at this moment there are such parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, in Alaska, Arizona, California, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois (in just part of the state), Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  That's 25 states.  Although minor parties are entitled to primaries just now in Florida, Mississippi, and Utah, no primary ballots will be printed up unless there is a contest, which is rare for parties other than the Dem and Rep Parties.  Also in South Carolina all parties are entitled to a primary if they wish, but they are also free to nominate by convention and the parties (other than Dem and Rep) generally choose convention.

 Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
      From: "Richman, Jesse T." <JRichman at odu.edu>
 To: 'Salvador Peralta' <oregon.properties at yahoo.com>; Election Law <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu> 
 Sent: Friday, December 5, 2014 10:11 AM
 Subject: Re: [EL] Minor Party Becomes a Major Party?

Salvador,    What it means for a party to be a ‘major’ party is state-specific.  Often the main recognition / distinction consists in whether a party’s candidates must collect signatures in order to get their name on the ballot.  In states with public financing, there are often also thresholds for qualification for public campaign financing.  New York, for instance, has a number of parties that qualify for automatic access.  I’d want to follow up on this further to use the data, but Wikipedia claims that there are five parties with automatic ballot access: the Conservative Party, the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Independence Party  and the Republican Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_New_York).     The Independence Party of Minnesota (also known at one time as the Reform Party of Minnesota) is an example of a party distinctly recognized by its state as a major party (http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=237) which reflects its history of strong showings in state elections, and the service of Jesse Ventura as Governor from 1999 – 2003.    Jesse Richman       From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]On Behalf Of Salvador Peralta
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2014 12:38 PM
To: Election Law
Subject: [EL] Minor Party Becomes a Major Party?    Good morning,    I see on Ballotpedia that there are a total of 34 distinct and officially recognized political parties in the United States.      Does anyone know whether any political party other than Democrats and Republicans have been recognized as a major political party by any state in states that make that distinction?    Thanks, 
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