California Prints New Registration Cards that List Americans Elect

Since 1976, California voter registration forms have listed all the qualified parties, and provided a check box for each one. New registration cards have now been issued to reflect that Americans Elect is now a qualified party.

Question 14 of the form asks, “Do you want to choose a political party preference?” Underneath that question, on the left, there is a check box labeled “No Party Preference.” After the that, it says, “No, I do not want to choose a political party preference.”

Under question 14, but on the right, the form says, “Yes, my political party preference is: (check one). This is followed by a list of parties, in alphabetical order, each with its own checkbox. The order is American Independent Party, Americans Elect Party, Democratic Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, Peace and Freedom Party, Republican Party, Other (specify).”

Americans Elect, which spent several million dollars collecting 1,030,040 valid signatures to earn its party status, will go off the ballot in January 2014 unless it gets its registration up to one-fifteenth of 1%. That will probably be approximately 12,000 registered members. Currently it only has 3,030. It will be interesting to see if Americans Elect exerts itself to raise its registration in California and save its ballot access.