Opinion
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Third parties
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Published: October 27, 2009
The N.C. Supreme Court may soon have to decide whether the state's third-party ballot-access law is constitutional. This matter should not have had to come before the courts.
If legislators and the two major parties would look beyond their own interests, they'd see that the law needs changing, as the Libertarian Party has been saying for years.
North Carolina ballot-access law is one of the strictest in the country and one of the few things that Democrats and Republicans agree upon. The law limits the playing field for these two parties, allowing them to stay comfortably within their own party bases and ignore the discontent of voters looking for different solutions.
To gain access to the ballot under state law, a party must file a petition bearing the equivalent of 2 percent of the state's registered voters. That is a daunting threshold for new parties to meet, one that usually consumes its meager resources of money and volunteers. In 2008, Libertarians needed 70,000 signatures to get on the ballot. In 2012, third parties will need about 85,000.
Under the law, if a party's candidate for president or governor fails to garner two percent of the statewide vote in the next election, the party is stripped of its position and must start over again. Fortunately for Libertarians, gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger won almost 3 percent of the 2008 vote so they will be on the ballot until at least 2012.
This is not a fair system, and legislators know it. But repeatedly, bills to make the system more fair have been defeated in the General Assembly. Legislative leaders have lofty rationales -- mostly, they discuss the sanctity of the two-party system -- but this is really an issue of self-interest for politicians.
Voters lose not just because the system is unfair. They lose because third parties play an important role in reshaping the two main parties. In American history, the election of third-party candidates has been a rarity. But third parties have had significant influence at times in forcing the two main parties to address issues they would just as soon ignore.
A three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals recently ruled that the law is constitutional. But, because the panel split 2-1, the plaintiff, the Libertarian Party, has an automatic right of appeal to the state's highest court.
This is an appeal that should not be necessary. The Libertarians should not have to spend their time and money on legal fees. Instead, state lawmakers should reform the law to make it fairer and more receptive to new political input.
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