Status

Our Alabama affiliate is the Alabama Statesmen. Their web site is www.alstatesmen.org. Their chair is Darryl W. Perry, who ran for U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate with the Alabama Statesmen endorsement. Right now we can confirm a minimum of five official members of the affiliate. The Facebook group has 15 members, including at least 3 who are in Alabama.

Candidate ballot access requirements

Alabama requires 37,513 signatures to get a candidate on the ballot statewide for Senate and state constitutional offices (yet only 5,000 signatures for President). The state has a "party petition," where you list the party name and then name candidates at a convention.

Party ballot access requirements

20% of the vote for any statewide office achieves full party access. There are eight such offices up for election in 2010: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer, State Commissioner of Agriculture & Industries, and U.S Senate.

Party access may be available for individual counties.

Strategy

Each candidate for statewide office that runs in 2010 is a chance at party ballot access. The AL Statesmen should recruit a full slate of eight candidates for 2010 to have eight chances at ballot access.

Start gathering signatures for 2010 party access immediately. This can be done at any promotional events and by volunteer work. It would be wise to wait until late 2009 or early 2010 to pay petitioners.

If ballot access attempts for the party fail, we can fall back on the 5,000 signature requirement for presidential candidates.

The party could focus on running candidates in specific counties to get party ballot access there. Building the party from the local level up is a good strategy because it is difficult to run a successful statewide race without significant funding.

Because of the extensive signature requirements for statewide petitions, it is recommended that the Alabama Statesmen start a fund for ballot access as well as party promotion. Jim Davidson has started such a fund for the Kansas affiliate, and the state committee in Indiana is in the process of creating one as well.

How you can help

We need more Alabama Statesmen! In addition to needing a larger membership to make these goals possible, we need to fill vacancies on the state committee.

If you reside in Alabama, please join the Alabama Statesmen Facebook group. Also contact state chair Darryl W. Perry and let him know if you can serve on the committee, help with promotional efforts, gather petition signatures, or run for office.