White: No Labels off the ballot in Delaware?
Margaret White is the co-executive director of No Labels.
State election officials are working to block the will of the commonsense majority. Here’s why their efforts are misguided, plain and simple.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an independent.
You should be outraged by what just happened in Delaware, where the state’s election commissioner, Anthony Albence, just unjustly and outrageously announced his intent to remove No Labels Delaware from 2024 election ballots.
Let’s be very clear about what’s happening here: Albence is brazenly putting his thumb on the scale to help the political prospects of President Joe Biden in his home state.
No Labels Delaware had already won the right to be on the ballot in 2024. Now, Albence is trying to retroactively take it away.
The right to obtain a ballot line is just as protected by the U.S. Constitution as the right to register to vote. One right is useless without the other, and that’s why this attack on No Labels is so profoundly troubling. This is an attack on the freedom of Americans to choose their elected representatives. It is a form of voter suppression.
Mr. Albence wants to block No Labels Delaware from the ballot based on an absurd catch-22: State law mandates that No Labels Delaware register party members to secure ballot access, but he claims they cannot even ask voters to list No Labels on their registrations. This unconstitutional position would force No Labels into a perpetual purgatory, unable to qualify for the ballot and yet unable to do anything that would allow us to qualify. Mr. Albence is making a mockery of the democratic process and the constitutional right of Americans to the ballot.
Mr. Albence also asserts, based on a handful of phone calls and an anonymous tip from a reporter, that No Labels Delaware is “tricking” voters during the registration process. He is apparently ignorant of the fact that we observe best-in-class measures to prevent confusion, such as having our organizers wear T-shirts that say, “THIS IS NOT A PETITION,” in bold letters and requiring our organizers to complete multiple rounds of training. We also use only the official form published by the commissioner himself that features the title, “All-in-One Form to Register to Vote,” in bold at the top. These measures are exactly why Mr. Albence can only identify around 30 instances of potential voter confusion out of the 1,316 registrations we have successfully submitted.
Under the Unity08 v. Federal Election Commission federal court decision, nonprofits like No Labels are well within our rights to secure ballot access, and no one is allowed to interfere with our right. Unfortunately, these shenanigans in Delaware are just the latest example of the growing partisan conspiracy to keep No Labels off the ballot. In fact, we just learned recently that a coalition of progressive groups is threatening a baseless lawsuit over our tax status.
There’s only one correct way forward here: President Biden should call on Delaware’s election commissioner to immediately stand down, cease his blatantly undemocratic actions and keep No Labels on the ballot in Delaware.
This is America, where there are no kings and queens. The people reign supreme, and it has never been clearer that Americans want another choice in 2024 beyond what Democrats and Republicans are willing or able to give. No Labels is going to keep working to provide that choice, and we hope you will join us in this fight to preserve our most fundamental freedoms as Americans.
One freedom: the freedom to have another voting choice.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
