The Democratic party needs to make something crystal clear to NH

[dsc]

either your primary ballots list all our candidates or you don't get to go first. Bernie is the ranking member of the Budget Committee of the US Senate, he has caucused with the Democrats since he was in the House. He provides a vote for us for leader, and he has risen through the ranks of seniority. The entire point of NH going first is that it is supposed to be an easy state to get access to voters and yes, the ballot. I have repeatedly said NH shouldn't be first for other reasons, I will admit, but this should be the line in the sand.

[PoliticAverse]

1. To get on the Democratic primary ballot in New Hampshire all Sanders has to do..

is file a notarized copy of an oath.

The required oath includes the statement:
"I am a registered member of the Democratic party"

[longship]

2. One cannot register as a Democrat in Vermont.

Or where I live, in Michigan.

I have been a Dem activist for years. Back in the day, to be part of the party process you had to register as a Democrat. But the GOP legislatures in many states changed that so that nobody could register to vote as a partisan. MI did that and apparently Vermont has apparently had it for a long time.

Bernie cannot register as a Democrat in Vermont, and I cannot in MI either.

[JI7]

3. what did Howard Dean do ?

[delrem]

5. Did Howard Dean run against a Clinton?

[JI7]

7. no, Dean is supporting a Clinton

[delrem]

9. So he might not have had "special" problems with Dem power brokers.

It seems to me that this Dem primary is all about that -- to the limit.

[Agschmid]

19. Bernie won't either, this is a silly meme.

He will be on the ballot and I'm sure he will do well.

[brooklynite]

26. Do you have any evidence that Clinton wants Sanders blocked from the ballot?

Or is a good conspiracy theory too juicy to give up?

[PoliticAverse]

8. Howard Dean got on the ballot as will Sanders.

Note that the New Hampshire Democratic Party has indicated they support Sanders' inclusion on the primary ballot.

"The New Hampshire Democratic Party will work to satisfy any concerns of the New Hampshire Secretary of State to ensure Sen. Sanders is on the democratic primary ballot," Buckley said. (From: http://www.wmur.com/politics/question-is-bernie-sanders-eligible-to-run-in-the-nh-democratic-primary/32674614 )

[merrily]

16. GOOD. Most relevant post on the thread, too. Kudos.

[Agschmid]

20. Yup.

Good post.

[Scuba]

23. Thank you for (hopefully) putting that issue to rest.

[Le Taz Hot]

30. I'd like to request this as an OP.

This same issue has been brought up ad nausea here and it needs to be cleared up once and for all. Good Bookmaring material as well.

[winter is coming]

33. This should be an OP.

If nothing else, it will make it easier to find the next twenty times this nonissue is raised.

[tritsofme]

10. The same applies in Illinois, Obama could not have been a "registered Democrat" in Illinois.

We have open primaries, you choose which partisan ballot you want each time you cast your ballot, but there is no party registration.

[dragonlady]

32. Party affiliation is even more private in Wisconsin

The primary ballot lists all the candidates from every party (Constitution, Libertarian, Pirate Party, whatever), each in its own section. The voter must choose only one party's section, but that choice is made in the voting booth.

[merrily]

14. I don't know how many times that has been posted. Under Vermont law, it's

impossible to register as a Democrat, as a Republican, as a Green, as an Indie, as anything. You are a registered voter, period. That's all she wrote.

[seaglass]

21. Apples and oranges. Running as a candidate in VT does have a party affiliation and he could

have run as a Democrat if he wanted to. He didn't.

https://www.sec.state.vt.us/elections/frequently-asked-questions/state-candidates.aspx#faq-4377

[jwirr]

37. Or in Texas or in Illinois or in Minnesota where I live.

[TexasProgresive]

17. So, the following candidates swore to a lie?

LBJ
GHWB
GWB
Herbert Hoover
Rick Perry
If he gets on the ballot- Cruz.
You cannot swear an oath that you are registered in a party if you live in a state that doesn't recognize party registration without swearing a lie. If N. H. holds Mr. Sanders to this law they need to do the same for Perry and Cruz and explain why they didn't do it for others such as Dean.

I swear I vote in the Democratic primary and for the Democratic candidates in the General. I cannot swear I am a registered Democratic party member.

[gwheezie]

4. Dems need to get him on the ballot in all contests

Very foolish if they don't. Bernie could have fucked it up for dems by running as an independent. He's running as a dem. Let's not get too cute. I'm an HRC supporter by the way and hope she is the nominee but if Bernie gets the dem nomination it will be because more dems voted for him than HRC. I can live with that and will campaign for him.

[jwirr]

38. And the DNC agreed.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Just how would you do that? New Hampshire's primary is set by law...

to be the first and they're not about to be told or threatened who to put on the ballots.

The law, btw, is not Federal, it's their own state law saying that if any other state tries to have an earlier primary, theirs will automatically move up. I think that goes back to the '70s.

[mythology]

40. Remove their delegates from the national convention

If New Hampshire were to refuse to put Sanders on the ballot, don't seat their delegates and instruct contenders to not campaign there, similar to Florida and Michigan in 2008.

That said, Sanders will be on the primary ballot so this is irrelevant.

[oldandhappy]

11. If New Hampshire wants to be relevant ...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Trying to keep him off the ballot is cowardly.

[Rincewind]

13. A question,

this is a state election law that has been on the books for decades, so, why doesn't Senator Sanders have to obey a law that everyone else has to obey? Are there any other laws he can ignore? If he wants run as a Democrat, he can join the party.

[merrily]

15. How do you suggest Sanders "obey" this law without lying under oath?

See Replies 1 and 2.

[okasha]

34. By joining the Vermont Democratic Party,

which is how Dean got on the NH ballot.

[merrily]

35. That would not make him a "registered" Democrat within the meaning of the oath.

My guess is that the New Hampshire requirement, if truly a state requirement, is unconstitutional under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, if nothing else.

Nader, to his credit, challenged a lot of these unduly restrictive ballot laws successfully. Though probably not this one as he may not have been running "unregistered."

But, I understand the New Hampshire Democratic Party has recognized Sanders as a Democrat. It would be hard not to, as the DNC attempted to fundraise at his expense practically the second he made his unofficial announcement about running as a Democrat.

[okasha]

36. If it worked for Dean it should work for Sanders.

And let's keep in mind that Sanders got a lot of free advertising out of that Dem fundraising.

[merrily]

39. I don't think Sanders is going to have a problem. The DNC fundraising took money away from Sanders.

Most people have a finite amount of money they can donate per month or year to all causes combined; and Sanders is not taking PAC money, so individual donations are more important to him than anyone. I have a feeling helping Bernie was the last thing that the DNC intended its fundraising email to do. Your results may differ.

As far as what Dean did, Dean still had to sign an oath saying he was a registered Democrat. If he personally did not feel he was being misleading under oath or worked something out with NH, cool, I guess.

[TexasProgresive]

18. Was this law enforced for candidates

from states like Texas which do not do party registration? You can't swear to what you can't do.

[seaglass]

22. There is party affiliation for candidates in Texas.

http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/candidates/guide/index.shtml

[TexasProgresive]

24. The N.H. law requires an oath that one is registered as a party member

That is not the same thing as declaring one is a (fill in the blank) party member. Party affiliation is not being a registered party member. I vote in the Democratic primaries and for the Democratic candidates in the general so I am a Democratic voter but I am NOT registered as a member of any party.

So must a candidate from any state that is similar to Texas i.e. Vermont, Michigan and others, swear to a lie in an oath? And were other candidates in the past from such states force to sign this lie to get on the ballot? Let's include Carnival Cruz and pRick Perry.

[seaglass]

25. It seems they have gotten around that in the past by showing that a candidate has been on a

party ballot, at least that is what the SOS states. I won't disagree that the law needs to be updated, my statement went directly to whether a CANDIDATE could be affiliated with a party in VT, which s/he clearly can - same as TX.

http://kcbx.org/post/quirky-new-hampshire-law-might-keep-bernie-sanders-ballot

"Whenever the question has come up, there was some way to usually show the person has been on the ballot of that party," New Hampshire's long-serving Secretary of State Bill Gardner told NPR. "I really don't know." ''

[Sancho]

27. I think you have the correctly described the issue here...

most others in the past can point to the fact that they ran or were elected as Democrats. If some kind of board or SoS investigated, the evidence is that Bernie had an opportunity to run as a Democrat, and he actively chose to run as an Independent.

Maybe the GOP would want to throw in a monkey wrench, or whatever theory you have, but Bernie has a problem if NH rules against him.

The effect of having a small organization, no money, no army of lawyers, and no previous national experience is that these things happen.

The really big issue is that Bernie is NOT a Democrat. He's had decades to support the Democratic party, and he has refused. Choices have consequences. He can't honestly swear to something that is not true.

[seaglass]

28. I think what will happen is that the support of the state D party will be deemed sufficient to allow

him on the ballot. I do not believe any D candidate will challenge that. Not sure what the point would be of any other party challenging his inclusion on the ballot.

[Sancho]

29. You may be correct, but I don't know NH dynamics.

You many recall some primary shenanigans in the last election with people resigning to open the door for challenges, etc.

There may be some reason the GOP would want to interpret the law in a way that they think is advantageous for/against Tea Party candidates or some other weird circumstance that may have no direct connection to Bernie.

I think I read that the deciding agent in NH was mostly GOP, but I don't have a link.

[PRB]

31. Hasn't this stuff of "going first" become less meaningful?

Cincinnati Reds used to be the first team to play at season's start. Just from tradition. That no longer happens. So not sure if this makes much difference.

[Sancho]

41. Just to play the game...

If all you had to do is "swear" you are a Democrat (but some states don't have registration, so maybe you can't demand a state registration), then anyone who wants to - a libertarian, green party, tea party, etc. candidate could "swear" for the moment they were a Democrat. Then you'd have 45 or maybe 300 Democrats in the primary!!!

That's the reason for some of the state laws. It keeps people from "fusion" campaigns (more than one party) or quick switches which make a mess of primaries.

[dsc]

42. I think that anyone who casts a vote for the Democratic leader of the Senate

should qualify.

[Sancho]

43. I suspect you've seen this...it's not really a matter of what Democrats think...it's up to the SoS

http://www.wmur.com/politics/question-is-bernie-sanders-eligible-to-run-in-the-nh-democratic-primary/32674614

Question: Is Bernie Sanders eligible to run in the NH Democratic primary?
Gardner: Law says he must be a registered Democrat when he files
In Vermont, party primary winners must either accept or reject the nominations of his or her party.

Gardner said Condos confirmed that Sanders, after winning the Democratic primaries of 2006 and 2012, rejected the Democratic nomination and at the same time filed papers to be on the general election ballot as an independent -- and in each election, won.

In the early 1970s, Sanders ran for governor and other offices as a member of the Vermont Labor Union Party. He resigned from that party in 1979. Sanders has never run in a general election as a Democrat.
But when it comes to filing to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot, none of that may matter. Here, it’s the state law that counts and the state law requires party registration. It's Gardner’s job to administer state election laws.

Devine also pointed out that Vermont Gov. Howard Dean had no trouble getting on the 2004 New Hampshire primary ballot. And, he said, neither Texas nor Tennessee have party registration, yet George W. Bush and Al Gore also ran in the Granite State.

Sanders’ situation is slightly different, and Gardner says it’s unique.
Sanders rejected Democratic nominations, while Dean and Gore served as a governor and a U.S. senator, respectively, as Democrats, and Bush was a Republican governor.

[dsc]

44. we should make it crystal clear

if they keep Sanders off the ballot then we won't seat delegates from that primary.