Party Seeks Justice – Questions
SOS Kiffmeyer’s actions
Independence Party leadership filed a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court today asking the court to rectify “a gross injustice against the Independence Party, its candidates and the voters of Minnesota,” announced State Party Chair Jim Moore at a capital news conference.
The Independence Party has discovered that Secretary of State Kiffmeyer misrepresented herself to Party Chair Jim Moore and the Star Tribune when saying that she had applied the 10% threshold law in the past. Sunday’s edition of that paper stated, “She did emphasize that the 10 percent rule is not something being enforced for the first time. Her staff performs numerous calculations after elections to carry out state law, she said.” The party analyzed IP Candidate results in the 2000 Primary and determined that Kiffmeyer in fact did not assert the 10% Law in that primary.
“This
is outrageous!” Jim Moore, State Party Chair responded when told the Secretary
indicated she may not have run these calculations due to antiquated computer
systems.” Moore Stated later, ‘The only
thing that has changed between today and what she told me last week is that I
requested that she provide the documentation she used to apply the 10% rule in
the 2000 and 2002 primaries.” Moore stated later. “We made these calculations on an excel spreadsheet…excel has
been around for over 15 years”. Moore continued, “It appears that she is
selectively applying the law in this election to toss my candidates off the
ballot.” “This is precisely why the
Secretary of State must become a non-partisan office.” He surmised. IP officials are still waiting for the
requested election information.
Moore seeks to dispel several misconceptions that have arisen since this action first unfolded.
1. Less than 18 hours after the polls closed, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Kielkucki sent a carefully constructed argument to Attorney General Mike Hatch to remove IP candidates off of the ballot. Yet the Secretary of States office made no effort to inform candidates that they could be eliminated from by the statute in question even in the candidate campaign book provided by the Office of the Secretary of State.
2. Only IP candidates tripped this threshold because they did not get enough votes. Over 50 incumbents and over 80 challengers from the DFL and Republican races did not meet this threshold.
3. The Secretary of State’s and Attorney General’s “hands were not tied”. They could have provided the specific recourse defined in the statute: The right of candidates to petition to get back on the ballot. “I firmly believe politics were involved in this.” Moore surmised.
Moore
thanks the public for their outpouring of support as the IP fights this battle.
“Greens, Democrats and Republicans all believe that this action is an
outrageous assault against democratic choice.”
The main focus of the party is to return its candidates to the general election ballot and provide Minnesotans with an alternative to gridlock.
The petition argues six key positions to the Minnesota Supreme Court:
1. The legislature and Governor Carlson repealed the statute in 1996.
2. The statute deprives IP candidates’ due
process and the right to remedy.
3. The statute violates Equal Protection
rights guaranteed by the United States and Minnesota Constitutions. This
law’s 10% formula creates different requirements for each candidate in each
district.
4. By removing candidates from the general election ballot the first amendment rights of the candidates and voters are being violated. The statute unduly burdens first amendment rights and is not served by any compelling state interest.
5. The law is obsolete and has been effectively repealed by provisions made in other provisions governing major political parties and elections.
6. The statute does not further any compelling state interest of the state, nor does it even have any rational basis.
Moore thanks the party’s legal team of Mike Padden and David Shultz for their hard work on this petition. “We are confident that we will prevail.”
Released online: 9/22/04
Prepared and Paid for by the Independence Party of Minnesota, PO Box 40495, St. Paul MN 55104 (651) 487-9700