The legislative session is coming to a close, but HB 794 is stuck in the Senate Rules Committee.
The original bill would have dramatically lowered our state’s high ballot access barriers. We agreed with the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jason Saine, when he urged us to support transforming the bill into a study bill in order to get it passed. And it did pass the House with an overwhelming 109-5 vote.
That was a month ago. Since then, both houses have been busy working on various budget and tax reform bills. The bill has been left dormant in the Senate Rules Committee. Continue reading →
FLAT ROCK – Libertarians from across North Carolina gathered at Mountain Lodge over the weekend to celebrate their political party’s growth and strategize ways of advancing their causes of freedom and smaller government.
“There’s a great deal of dissatisfaction with the Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina and we’re benefiting from that,” said J.J. Summerell, chair of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina. Continue reading →
Members of two state political parties are holding conventions this weekend. The North Carolina Republican Party is welcoming many of its members to Charlotte. Party leaders say they’ll use the event toemphasize new campaign approaches.
GOP supporters want the party to make an effort to reach out to more minority conservatives. Chief of Staff Mike Rusher says the party also wants to change its campaign approach from concentrating on heavily-populated voting districts to what he calls “a 100-county focus”. Continue reading →
This topic isn’t a new one here at the Tenth Amendment Center. We often discuss the left/right paradigm, and the sentiment of John Adams that; “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
Who could have known those words would ring so true today. Continue reading →
CITIZEN ACTIVISM
FEATURED VIDEO
OUR MISSION
″The mission of Free the Vote North Carolina is to eliminate barriers to participation in the electoral process that restrict or limit the right of citizens to vote for the person of their choice; to have their vote counted; to run for elective office, and; to organize and operate political parties that are treated equally under the law with other political parties.″
Filled with mountains of information about political parties past to present, Gillespie’s Challengers to Duopoly, aptly subtitled Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics, shows over the course of our nation’s existence the powerful role that third parties, “the [road] less traveled by,” have played in both national, state and local politics. Find Out More...
ACTION ALERTS
May 14, 2013 – HB794 passed its first reading in the NC Senate and was referred to the Committee on Rules & Operations of the Senate.
May 13, 2013 – HB794, Ballot Access Reform Study Bill, passes the NC House of Representatives with a 109-5 vote.
May 9, 2013 – HB794 Study Bill placed on the NC House Calendar for Monday, May 13, 2013.
May 8, 2013 – HB794 turned into a Study Bill. Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee will study ballot access and report findings along with recommended legislation upon the Assembly reconvening in 2014.
May 7, 2013 – HB794 scheduled for House Election Committee hearing tomorrow (May 8) at 1:00pm, Rm 643 in the Legislative Office Building. Call Committee Members in support or bills passage as it is currently wrote.
Challengers to Duopoly by David Gillespie
