Around New England

Official Party Status For Maine Socialists?

December 20, 2018

The Portland Press Herald (PPH) reports that the Socialist Party of Maine (SPM) has received authorization from the Maine Secretary of State’s (SOS) office to begin enlisting voters to join its party ranks. The SPM must now register 5000 voters by 2020, and then get 10,000 voters in the 2022 general election to vote as socialists, before it will be granted official party status by the SOS.

Currently only the Republican, Democratic, and Green parties hold official status in Maine, the PPH reports. The Libertarian Party lost its status when it failed to meet the state’s minimum requirements in last November’s election.

A post on SPM’s Facebook page instructs those interested in joining the Socialist Party that they can “now register Socialist by checking ‘other qualifying party’ and writing in Socialist when you register to vote.”

The Socialist Party of Maine describes itself on its website as “a statewide democratic socialist organization that works for and models the creation of an egalitarian society in which everyone has the possibility to seek fulfilment [sic] without facing barriers based on structural inequalities.”

The SPM was founded in July 2017.