Michael:
You pose an interesting but not unique issue: suppose a group wants to portray itself indistinguishably with another -- a "Democrat party" vs. the "Democratic party."
These are the type of details of election administration to which we entrust administrative elections officials.
>>From my participation with elections officials -- in work, testimony, educational events, COGEL conferences -- administrative elections officials understand and pursue their role as ensuring that the presentation of government information on elections (such as, ballot party IDs) are clear and distinguishable to voters.
Generally unnoticeable changes of symbols in a party or candidate's name, which would reasonably lead to mis-identification to voters, is an issue that local and state elections officials are very well qualified to address -- and have done so for years (subject, of course, to court review).
You need not enlist Congress (or state legislatures) to codify administrative judgments on this matter. There are people far more qualified and less partisan to make these judgments.
Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue NE
Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: (202) 454-5182
CEL: (202) 905-7413
FAX: (202) 547-7392
Holman@aol.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael McDonald <mmcdon@gmu.edu>
To: election-law <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>
Sent: Sat, Apr 9, 2011 7:47 pm
Subject: Re: [EL] Banning political parties
The Maryland Electoral Board disbanded the similarly named Independent
Party. The rational, as I recall, was that there was no real organization to
the party and that the name was confusing people who thought they were
registering as an independent, unaffiliated with any party.
I hate to give anyone any ideas, but image if someone started the Democrat
Party with the purpose to confuse it with the Democratic Party. Would that
be acceptable?
============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor, George Mason University
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Mailing address:
(o) 703-993-4191 George Mason University
(f) 703-993-1399 Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon@gmu.edu 4400 University Drive - 3F4
http://elections.gmu.edu Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu
[mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Salvador Peralta
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 5:46 PM
To: election-law@mailman.lls.edu
Subject: [EL] Banning political parties
Can anyone on the list point me to instances where a state or the federal
government has banned a political party?
_______________________________________________
election-law mailing list
election-law@mailman.lls.edu
http://mailman.lls.edu/mailman/listinfo/election-law