With two months until the General Election in Connecticut, and most of the filing deadlines passed, the final slate of candidates is shaping up and it seems like a good time to look at the process of getting on the ballot in Connecticut. The recent court decision in Stamford of James Caterbone v. Susan Bysiewicz provides all the more reason to look at this.

Let's start off by taking a general look at the process. Connecticut election law provides a few different ways that candidates can get on the ballot. The first is to become the candidate of a major party. Currently, Connecticut has two major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. To be a major party, the party's candidate for Governor in the most recent regular gubernatorial election must have received at least 20% of the vote. The other way to be a major party is to have at least 20% of the people who have registered as belonging to any party register with the party.

To illustrate this, there are around 2.2 million registered voters in Connecticut. Around 450,000 are registered as Republicans, which is just barely over 20%. However, the percentage is not of all the registered voters, but of those voters that have registered as belonging to a political party. Than number is closer to 1.3 million registered voters, and the 450,000 Republicans is well over 20%. It is also worth noting that less than 1% of voters who have registered with a party affiliation have registered with a minor party.

Major parties have the right to endorse candidates for any office in Connecticut. When they make an endorsement, they have two weeks to file the endorsement with the Secretary of the State's office. This gets to the case of James Caterbone of Stamford. On May 11th, the Republican Party nominated Mr. Caterbone to run for State Representative in the 147th Assembly District. The Certificate of Party Endorsement, however, was not put in the mail until Friday, May 21st. In addition, it was not sent as "certified mail, return receipt requested". The Secretary of State's office did not receive the letter until June 2nd. The Secretary of State's office considered the certificate invalid based on their understanding of General Statutes 9-388. Mr. Caterbone sought to have the court mandate that the Secretary of State's office accept the certificate. However, the court found that General Statute 9-388 was very clear and the court could not mandate the Secretary of State's office to accept the certificate. As such Mr. Caterbone will not be on the ballot in November.

Various people commented about how cavalier the Stamford Republican Town Committee seemed about protecting their ballot line, which is what caused me to look more closely at this case, as well as explore what is involved in getting ballot line access for minor parties.

While 20% is the magic number for major parties, 1% is the magic number for minor parties. To have a line on the ballot, a minor party must have received 1% of the vote on the specific ballot line in the previous election. If they do this, they can endorse a candidate for the office in a manner very similar to how major parties endorse candidates. Otherwise, they need to petition to be on the ballot, the same way any petitioning candidate would. They would need to get valid signatures.

There is also another way that a minor party can get a line on the ballot. They can cross-endorse a candidate already on the ballot, providing that they at least have a line on the ballot for one of the other offices in the district. The Working Family Party has been particularly effective with this and have ballot line access in all five congressional districts, twenty-five of the state senate districts and many assembly districts.

The Green Party has been fairly effective in maintaining minor party status through running their own candidates. In 2008, they received at least 1% of the vote in the First, Second and Third Congressional Districts. They also received at least 1% of the vote in the 2006 Secretary of the State, Treasurer, Comptroller and Attorney General's races.

The Libertarian Party has also managed to received at least 1% of the vote in the 2006 Secretary of the State, Treasurer, and Comptroller's races as well as in one State Senate district.

The Independent Party has used a hybrid approach sometimes cross-endorsing sometimes running their own candidates. They maintain a ballot line in the Fifth Congressional District, three State Senate districts and a handful of State Representative districts.

The Connecticut for Lieberman party ended up with ballot line access for the U.S. Senate race, as well as for a handful of State Representative races.

In the 147th Assembly District, Democratic Incumbent William Tong is now only being faced by a petitioning candidate. Minor parties that want to build a a presence in Stamford might have been able to gain a ballot line by cross endorsing the petitioning candidate. However, it is now to late to do that.

In the 100th Assembly District, we see cross endorsements being played out in great detail. Democratic Incumbent Matt Lesser is running for re-election as a Democrat with a Working Family Party cross-endorsement. Republican challenger John Szewczyk has received cross-endorsements from the Independent Party, the Libertarian Party and the Connecticut for Lieberman Party. In the last cycle, Rep. Lesser received enough votes on the Working Family Party line for the Working Family party to maintain a ballot line. There were no other minor parties on the ballot for that district in 2008. It will be interesting to see if there will be enough votes for Mr. Szewczyk on the three different minor party lines for any of them to maintain a ballot line in the next election cycle.

In the broader context, it will be interesting to see how the minor parties fair in 2010 and whether or not they will gain more ballot access. It will also be interesting to see if the major parties will do better jobs at defending their own ballot lines.