Inside Elections

One of the signs of a vital democracy is not only the registration levels of existing parties, it’s also when people decide

Political Party Beginnings

 to start their own party!

According to Melinda Dubroff, one of our Election Specialists in charge of the voter registration and vote by mail units, “It’s remarkably easy in California to attempt to became a qualified party.”  Occasionally she even receives hand-written “Formal Notice” documents (documents required to propose a new political party and start the membership recruitment and qualification process). Dontcha just love the democratic process!

“It’s easy to start the process, but it’s not that easy to qualify,” Melinda explained. “There are several ways to qualify, however, when starting a party,  two ways are generally followed:   1) collecting signatures that equal 10% of the number of voters that participated in the preceding California gubernatorial election (889,910) or  2) registering 1% of the entire vote of the preceding California gubernatorial election into the newly proposed party (88,991).

That’s why most people have never heard of the Superhappy Evolution & NeuroScience Party, the More Money for Women Party, or the Anarchy & Poverty Party that are currently in circulation along with 61 other wannabe political parties.”