Supporters of the socialist campaign redoubled their effort in the final week of the voter registration drive after state elections authorities claimed that only 107 of the first batch of 245 registrants the socialists had turned in were valid. After organizers of the SWP ballot effort challenged the low validity rate, election officials said the rate from the second batch of 108 registrants was better but declined to give a figure.

In order to obtain ballot status, the state requires a party to have 259 voters registered to that party. September 1 is the deadline for the state to make a determination on the ballot request.

Socialist campaigners have had to overcome a host of undemocratic restrictions across the country to seek ballot status in some 14 states. Many state governments require the collection of tens of thousands of signatures on nominating petitions, including distribution requirements for the signatures in many counties, and payment of fees. All are designed to keep working-class parties off the ballot so the two major parties of capitalism—the Democrats and Republicans—can remain unchallenged.

Over the past 12 years, Delaware officials have responded to efforts by the Socialist Workers to get on the ballot by changing the state election laws to make it more difficult for socialists and other working-class candidates to get on the ballot.

After the 1992 elections, state legislators changed the election laws, more than doubling the number of signatures required for candidates to get on the ballot through the signature petition method. The law now requires 5,200 signatures. That’s why the socialists decided to seek ballot status by registering at least 259 people into the party.

State officials put up an additional obstacle to ballot access by declaring a March to September “moratorium” on people changing party registration. This meant that campaign supporters had to sign up 259 people who were not registered at all to put Calero and Hawkins on the ballot.

In preparing for the effort, campaign supporters met with election officials, and were informed that they had a leg up—11 people were already registered Socialist Workers.

On August 7, the first weekend of the socialist voter registration effort, campaigners spread out from Newark, a campus town where the University of Delaware is located, to Wilmington and surrounding areas. Their explanation of the need for a working-class alternative to the capitalist parties received a good response.

“I really like the platform of your party,” one young woman said, as she registered SWP after reading what the party stands and fights for outside the Valu Giant store at 4th and Adams in Wilmington. “Especially the demand for a shorter work week to spread jobs around to all who need them, and to get the U.S. troops out of Iraq and around the world.”

She took extra copies of the campaign flyer and circulated them to others at the grocery store, urging people to stop and register. By the end of the socialists’ effort, 180 patrons of this store, in the center of the city’s Black community, registered SWP to put the party’s ticket on the ballot.

Campaigners reported that the state of Delaware had put one more obstacle in front of many working people trying to exercise their right to vote—the state ban on letting workers convicted on felony charges to register to vote. Four years ago state law was changed, allowing those with felony convictions to vote after maintaining a “clean” record for five years following the end of their sentence.

A number of people who responded favorably to the socialist campaign, however, said they continue to be disenfranchised. One woman said she had been pressured to cop a plea to a frame-up charge under the threat of serving jail time if she went to trial, and ended up with a record that has followed her, including preventing her from registering. Several members of another family explained how their father had gotten out of prison 30 years ago and still wasn’t able to vote.

The socialists responded that the SWP is fighting, among other things, for dropping these undemocratic restrictions on the right to vote.
 
 
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