Today, September 29, 2023, The Arizona Republic website published "No Labels can't stop candidates and a primary election it doesn't want," a column by Abe Kwok that mentions Richard Grayson's efforts to become an anti-No Labels Arizona No Labels Party candidate:
Arizona statute says, “A new political party may become eligible for recognition and shall be represented by an official party ballot at the next ensuing regular primary election.” The operative word being “shall.”
Beyond that, nothing stops someone who is registered with a political party from gathering sufficient nomination signatures to qualify the party’s primary election. The threshold is even easier for new political parties, requiring fewer signatures.
And the threshold is virtually nonexistent for someone like Richard Grayson, one of the two people whom No Labels is trying to block. Grayson, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and perennial candidate who describes his candidacy as performance art, plans on running as a write-in candidate.
He said he’s running chiefly to be a thorn in the side of No Labels, whose leadership he believes is helping former President Donald Trump get elected by siphoning votes away from President Joe Biden.
His plan is honed:
• Wait until the deadline for submitting signatures;
• See who qualifies for the ballot;
• Look for an office in which there’s no qualified Democratic candidate;
• and notify the Secretary of State’s Office of his plans to run as a write-in.
His name, along with those of other verified write-in candidates, will be made available on the web and at polling sites come election time. He only needs a few votes to advance. State law requires a plurality of the votes cast for the office. It could be one vote, theoretically.
Grayson has won three Arizona primaries by way of the write-in route — twice under the Green Party and once under Americans Elect — with as few as two votes.
Even if not a single person qualifies as a No Labels candidate, everyone registered with No Labels gets a blank ballot (with only a listing of offices up for election) for the August 2024 state primary. And Grayson — unless challenged by another write-in for that yet-to-be-determined office — will represent No Labels.
Party support or not.
The column appered in the print Arizona Republic on Saturday, October 7, 2023.
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