RALEIGH — Voters will notice something interesting when they go to the polls today. There will be just two political parties on the ballot, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
We’ve gotten used to having at least one “third party” on the ballot in North Carolina. While not fielding candidates for every position on the ballot, the Libertarian Party has been a mainstay on the North Carolina ballot for a number of election cycles, along with the two major parties.
From time to time, we’ve also seen other minor parties when we go to vote — but not this year.
That’s because none of the other parties have been able to obtain enough votes on a statewide race for governor or president to remain a viable party, according to North Carolina ballot access laws. That means that they have to start a petition drive to get enough signatures to become a new party in the state.
That takes a whopping amount of time and effort. And, if professional petition services are used, it costs a lot of money.
The Libertarian and Green parties would rather spend their time, money and effort promoting their ideas and candidates than getting petition drives going.
Third parties haven’t really caught on in the United States in recent history. Most people would rather identify with either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Nowadays, a good number of people don’t want to be called either a Republican or a Democrat. They say they’re independent. In North Carolina, we call them unaffiliated voters.
One of the good things about having such parties on the ballot is that they can bring in fresh ideas to the political debate. Even if their candidates don’t get elected, at least their ideas are there to contemplate.
If one or two of their ideas really catch fire, it’s likely that one of the two major parties will adopt them as their own. While encompassing those issues into a major party platform may make it more difficult for the minor parties to recruit new members, at least some of their ideas will become part of the political mainstream.
But if they can’t get on the ballot, it becomes more difficult for even their ideas to be heard.
The Democrats and Republicans who do get elected to public office begrudgingly share the political stage with each other. But they’re not all that thrilled about letting a Green or a Libertarian get on the stage with them. So they continue making it difficult for them to get on the ballot. Or if the other parties are finally able to gain ballot access, they make it difficult for them to stay on board.
Supporters of the two-party-only system say that they don’t want the state’s and the nation’s politics to become factionalized.
Experience is showing us that you don’t have to have an unlimited number of recognized political parties for factions to develop.
In recent years, minor parties such as the Libertarians and Greens have tried to get the General Assembly to make the state’s ballot access laws more reasonable.
They’ll try again next year.
Maybe some day they’ll succeed.
Poster Comment:
BUILD A THIRD PARTY FOR 2008 oh never mind, no one will be bothered....
