Peace and Freedom Party back on California ballot

By DAN SMITH

Sacramento Bee

03-FEB-06

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California's Peace and Freedom Party lives to fight another election campaign.

Three days after kicking the party off the ballot for the 2006 election, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson reversed himself on Friday.

McPherson spokeswoman Jennifer Kerns said the Republican secretary believes he interpreted the state's complex ballot access law correctly, but changed course after considering legal precedents dating back more than 70 years.

"We feel our interpretation (of the law) is the correct interpretation," Kerns said. "The historical precedent supports them being on the ballot even though the precedent is in direct conflict with (the law)."

John Reiger, Sacramento County Chairman of the Peace and Freedom Party, got the word second-hand just minutes before a Friday afternoon press conference called to criticize McPherson's original decision. McPherson's announcement on Tuesday had thrown the party and the 40 candidates it expects to field this year into confusion and anger.

"It's of course no surprise to us since we knew it was illegal in the first place," Reiger said of McPherson's change.

To maintain qualified status and nominate candidates for partisan office, a party must have registered voters equal to or more than 1 percent of the number of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election (2002) or have had a candidate receive 2 percent of the votes cast in that election. The 59,193 voters registered with the Peace and Freedom Party as of Jan. 3 fell well below the 77,389 needed, and the party fielded no candidates in 2002 because it was not a qualified party at that time.

But it had regained its status in time for the 2004 presidential election and fielded several candidates. In at least five similar instances in the past _ dating from 1934 to 2002 _ secretaries of state allowed the party to stay on the ballot through the next gubernatorial election, ballot access advocates argued.

The party was contemplating a lawsuit when McPherson changed course.

Kerns said McPherson would ask the Legislature to further clarify the law, but at this point has no position on how it should be clarified _ whether it should be easier or more difficult to win official party status.

"We would not try to set the law," she said. "We would seek clarification one way or the other."

(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, http://www.shns.com.)