Senate Bill S. 731 Electoral Freedom Act of 2009

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2009

SENATE BILL 731

Short Title: Electoral Freedom Act of 2009. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Jacumin; and Brock.
Referred to: Judiciary I.
March 24, 2009

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT TO CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF A "POLITICAL PARTY" BY REDUCING
THE NUMBER OF SIGNATURES REQUIRED FOR THE FORMATION OF A NEW POLITICAL PARTY AND FOR UNAFFILIATED CANDIDATES TO OBTAIN BALLOT ACCESS ELIGIBILITY

Read the text of the Bill here:

http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2009/Bills/Senate/PDF/S731v1.pdf

Sorry, but bad news to report this morning on SB 731 as follows:

Dear North Carolinian:

I regret to inform you all that the Electoral Freedom Act of 2009 (Senate
Bill 731), as of May 14, 2009 died in the NC Senate Judiciary I Committee,
where it failed to meet the Crossover Deadline. We were unaware of the
Crossover Deadline until it was too late; which stipulates that bills not
concerning the budget or appropriations must have crossed over from their
house of origin (in our case the NC Senate) to the other house (in our case
the NC House of Representatives) by the deadline which was set at May 14,
2009 in order to be considered after the deadline. Since the Electoral
Freedom Act of 2009 was still sitting in the Senate Judiciary I Committee
on the deadline is it not able to be taken up for consideration any longer
this session.

So, even though the bill did not succeed in becoming law, we were able to
successfully get a bill introduced to alleviate the ballot problems North
Carolina faces, and learned some lessons along the way such as the
crossover deadline. In the mean time, we have just introduced to the web a
new design for the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections PAC's
website which you can find at www.NCFPE.com, which is easier to navigate
and up-to-date. Please let us know what you think of the new site and any
corrections that may need to be made.

Between now and the beginning of the 2011-2012 Long Session of the North
Carolina General Assembly the NCFPE will be working to educate more people
about the ballot access problem in North Carolina, survey 2010 candidates
for public office, research more into the ballot problem and find more
legislators to introduce new legislation in the 2011 Session for hopefully
a more successful go at breaking down NC's restrictive ballot laws.

To accomplish these tasks, especially surveying as many candidates as
possible to let you know where they stand, the North Carolinians for Free
and Proper Elections ask that you consider donating to help us continue
working to better understand and fight NC restrictive ballot access laws.

For Liberty's Sake,

Jordon M. Greene
Founder/President
North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections
jmgreene@ncfpe.com
www.NCFPE.com
(828) 729-4509

"'No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice
in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens,
we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right
to vote is undermined.'" Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23