Libertarians: Minority party registration law unfair - Yoohyun Jung, Arizona Daily Star:
January 29, 2015 - "The attorney for the Libertarian Party is asking a federal appeals court to overturn legislation he argued makes it harder to register to vote as a member of a minority political party.
"Attorney David Hardy said limiting the checkboxes on voter-registration forms to just Republicans and Democrats is a 'self-re-enforcing cycle' on the part of the two predominant parties.
"'A person registering to vote is essentially told that there are two real political parties, and some unnamed "other" ones,' Hardy said in his opening brief to a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which conducted a special hearing Thursday at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
"The Arizona Libertarian Party, along with the Green Party, sued Arizona’s then-Secretary of State Ken Bennett in December 2011 after the Legislature passed an amendment to an election statute, changing how voters could identify their party of choice.
"The paper registration form created under the 2011 amendment offers an option of “other,” with what Hardy calls a 'tiny' line to fill out voters’ party preference for those registering as anything other than Republican or Democrat.
"Prior to that, the form provided a blank write-in for all party preferences....
"According to the state’s voter registration report, during the 2014 general election, about 1.1 million Arizonans registered as Republicans and about 940,000 as Democrats. About 27,000 people registered as Libertarians.
Read more: http://tucson.com/news/local/libertarians-minority-party-registration-law-unfair/article_7a1bc66c-aac7-53d7-976c-2cf9f56478c4.html
'via Blog this'
January 29, 2015 - "The attorney for the Libertarian Party is asking a federal appeals court to overturn legislation he argued makes it harder to register to vote as a member of a minority political party.
"Attorney David Hardy said limiting the checkboxes on voter-registration forms to just Republicans and Democrats is a 'self-re-enforcing cycle' on the part of the two predominant parties.
"'A person registering to vote is essentially told that there are two real political parties, and some unnamed "other" ones,' Hardy said in his opening brief to a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which conducted a special hearing Thursday at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
"The Arizona Libertarian Party, along with the Green Party, sued Arizona’s then-Secretary of State Ken Bennett in December 2011 after the Legislature passed an amendment to an election statute, changing how voters could identify their party of choice.
"The paper registration form created under the 2011 amendment offers an option of “other,” with what Hardy calls a 'tiny' line to fill out voters’ party preference for those registering as anything other than Republican or Democrat.
"Prior to that, the form provided a blank write-in for all party preferences....
"According to the state’s voter registration report, during the 2014 general election, about 1.1 million Arizonans registered as Republicans and about 940,000 as Democrats. About 27,000 people registered as Libertarians.
Read more: http://tucson.com/news/local/libertarians-minority-party-registration-law-unfair/article_7a1bc66c-aac7-53d7-976c-2cf9f56478c4.html
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment