Bad News for Third Parties: New York Increases Obstacles to Third Party Initiatives and Candidates.
“Third Parties’ Fears Realized as Election Commission Tighten Screws” by Jesse McKinley (The New York Times).
Third-parties play an important role in our electoral process for a number of reasons. First, they allow minority voices to be heard (ie: exercise of 1st Amendment rights). Second, third-parties allow voters to test our democracy by advocating for different points of view the two primary parties’ in the U.S. fail to take note of or act on. Third, third-parties act as a bell-weather of public opinion by forcing the two primary parties to take notice when significant voting blocks for third-party agendas get traction helping them to focus their attention where the voters, the people, want political will focused. Fourth, third-parties offer voters another option if they are not satisfied with the candidates the two primary parties offer up.
Perhaps some folks believe the “obstacles” placed on third party recognition, as obscurely reported on in the November 26, 2019, Page A21, of the New York Times, is not very important or newsworthy. But, a trend of eliminating third party’s voices by increasing the thresholds of numbers of petitions and signatures that must be obtained to even get an idea in front of voters for debate, and a vote, is un-American and an affront to our democracy - an affront we should all take notice of and view it for what it is - a corrupt attempt to grab and control elections to consolidate government power into the hands of the controlling few.
The reason this piece has been written is to sound the alarm. Though the circumstance used as an example happened at the hands of the Governor of New York, in the President’s home state, we should all be vigilant of the tendency of those who are in power to want to keep power from the people and consolidate and control it for themselves. Once again, this is why The Utah Bull-Moose Party advocates for single term candidates and “informed” candidates that will do the right thing for America first, and for their parties’ second.
Don’t let your democracy slip away to one day awaken and find yourself wondering, “what happened!?” As the Utah Bull-Moose Party tries to get a word in during upcoming elections, it’s understood that to have a voice, compliance with State registration protocols for petitions must be satisfied. If they are not satisfied, or made to be excessively burdensome, a democratic voice will be silenced and lost - a tragedy for us all.