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from Ballot Access News
Iraq Instability Follows After Government Excludes Hundreds of Candidates from the Ballot
January 16th, 2010
The New York Times of January 16 has this article about protests in Iraq, over a government decision to bar hundreds of candidates from the ballot, in the regional elections set for March. The candidates were removed from the ballot on the basis that in the past they had been too closely associated with the former ruling party, the Baath Party.
Six states in the United States still have election laws that bar certain political parties, or certain candidates, from the ballot, based on their beliefs. They are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill several years ago that would have eliminated a related law. The California law, which is still on the books because of the Governor’s veto, bars anyone who has been a member of the Communist Party in the last five years from being employed by a public school district. That is not an election law but it is a close cousin of other California election laws that bar subversive parties from the ballot and that require candidates to sign an oath that they have not been a member of the Communist Party in the last five years. The laws are not enforced because they have been held unconstitutional, but the legislature hasn’t repealed them.
Filed under: 3rd party, Ballot issues, elections, grassroots democracy, international politics, Iraq, News, politics, progressive politics, third party, US Politics Tagged: | Baath Party, ballot access, Communism, Communist Party, Iraq, third party
What?
Maybe you should’t cover Iraq if you don’t know what’s going on. For you to relate it to laws on the books in the US is insulting and offensive.
MTW,
Your comment does not resonate with me.
A. We did not “cover” it, we borrowed a story from a Ballot Access expert who posted it at his site.
B. It is good to try to relate justice issues in our country and other countries. We are trying to hold all governments to high standards of justice and ballot access.
C. The crux of the article was that PEOPLE IN IRAQ were protesting the government throwing people off the ballot. So, we are just magnifying a grassroots expression from people in Iraq.
Do you have any insight into why these people were thrown off the ballot? Do you think that it was fair or good that they were thrown off the ballot?
Thanks,
Kimberly Wilder