Supporters of James Harris and Margaret Trowe, Socialist Workers candidates for U.S. president and vice president, submitted the names of 31 electors of the socialist ticket to the Department of State in Tallahassee to place the party on the ballot.

Changes to Florida's constitution in 1998 ended the requirement of collecting tens of thousands of signatures to place a presidential candidate on the ballot. The socialist campaign in Florida is running write-in candidates for U.S. Senate and mayor and commissioner of Miami-Dade County.

Girard also announced an important legal victory for working class candidates in Florida. On August 15, after eight years in litigation, U.S. District Judge Michael Moore signed an order declaring Florida's bonding statute unconstitutional. This statute requires parties in the state to post a $10,000 state bond and a $5,000 county bond in order to run candidates for public office.

Two undemocratic procedures were challenged in 1992 by the Socialist Workers Party and Green Party as a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These were the bonding statute and a required "checking" fee of 10 cents for each signature collected on petitions to achieve ballot status. The checking fee totaled thousands of dollars, and proved to be a nearly insurmountable obstacle to ballot status for parties opposing the Democrats and Republicans.

In 1996 the district court struck down this statute, "permanently enjoin[ing] all supervisors of elections from enforcing an unconstitutional provision with respect to any minor political party." The court, however, left standing the bonding statute, declaring it a "moot point," since the state wasn't enforcing the law. But less than one month after this judgment, the Florida state government demanded that the Florida SWP pay this bond.

The lead lawyer for the SWP and Green Party, Randall Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, appealed this and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Moore. Berg, the SWP, and Green Party asked that the bonding statute be declared unconstitutional, and that all lawyers fees for the plaintiffs be paid by the state.

In a press release sent out by the Florida Justice Institute, Berg described the August 15 court ruling as "a tremendous victory for the democratic process." He added, "The court's order could not come at a better time. Few realize that the political process is not open to all parties, but is instead limited to those who can afford to abide by state regulations, such as the one struck down by the court today. For years the state of Florida has threatened the elimination of any party that did not post a bond. Only the Democrats and Republicans could afford a bond. It was Florida's way of excluding minor parties from the political process."

Bucky Mitchell, senior attorney with the Division of Elections, said, "We knew it was constitutionally suspect..." As part of the settlement, the state agreed to pay the parties $175,000 in legal fees, and to send the court order to state attorneys throughout the state and to election officials in all 67 counties.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home