There’s nothing like a helpful note from the Secretary of the Commonwealth to muddy the electoral waters. In June, Secretary of State William Galvin dutifully mailed post cards to all members of the Green-Rainbow Party explaining that:

"Voter registration records show that you are registered enrolled in the Green-Rainbow Party. Please note that as a result of the 2008 State Election, the Green-Rainbow Party is no longer a political party and instead is a political designation. Accordingly, your voter registration record has been updated.

Please be aware that voters enrolled in political designations are not eligible to vote in party primaries. If you would like to change your enrollment as a voter, please call 1-800-462-8683 to request a voter registration form.”

"Updated?" "Not eligible?" "Change my enrollment?” Huh?

The GRP immediately began hearing from members who wondered, and reasonably so, “Has the GRP disbanded?” and “Will I lose my right to vote if I don’t switch my party registration?” The answer to both these questions is, of course, “No.” The GRP is still very much in existence, however irritating the Secretary may find the fact; nor can he abscond with any of your voting rights. While the Secretary’s text implies that your registration has “been updated” in some unexplained fashion, this is in fact not the case.

Green-Rainbow voters are still enrolled as Green-Rainbow and have a right to continue in that designation and to fully participate in all Green-Rainbow activities.

The Secretary may have lacked the room to explain all this—after all, it was only a postcard. So we will. State election laws give “political party” status only to parties that run a candidate who receives a minimum 3% of a vote for a statewide office in the most recent election. Because the GRP had no candidate polling 3% in the 2008 presidential elections, it was reclassified as a “political designation” rather than a “political party.” The major difference between the labels “political party” and “political designation” is that the general election candidates for political designations are not chosen by primary elections, but are selected by other processes, such as nominating conventions. That’s all. This reclassification has happened before. It has never been viewed as something that would motivate voters to change their voter registration.

Nor has any change occurred with respect to the status of the Green-Rainbow Party under Federal law. The GRP is still viewed as a political party by the Federal Elections Commission, and in fact is legally required to make filings to the FEC.

So why did Democrat Galvin feel such a pressing need to send this notice, and to none-too-subtly invite all GRP members to take the opportunity to change our registrations (to … Democratic Party, perhaps)? In a letter to the Secretary’s office written on behalf of the Party’s Administrative Committee, GRP co-chair Eli Beckerman and Membership chair Scott Laugenour stated that

“We are concerned that these mailings mislead the voters regarding their rights and are worded to raise questions regarding whether registration under the Green-Rainbow designation might endanger their voting rights…. While the exact status of the Party under the regulations of the Commonwealth may change from time to time according to how many votes were received in the most recent election, these changes do not provide any clear reason for voters to change their enrollment. Certainly they do not create a reason for taxpayer money to be used to mail notices implying that voters should reconsider their enrollment.”

The Secretary’s office said the postcards were merely a generous attempt to provide “voter information.” But the Beckerman/Laugenour letter makes the sub-text of Galvin’s announcement all-too-transparent:

“The post cards appear to advance the partisan judgment that parties with officially recognized primaries somehow offer a compelling advantage to voters. We feel that there are many advantages of being affiliated with the Green-Rainbow Party and there are good reasons why voters decline to give their support to the Democratic or Republican Parties. The Secretary’s office should not appear to use its budget or its authority to promulgate its own opinions regarding the merits of enrollment under different designations.”

Oh, and just by way of coincidence—in the 2006 statewide elections, the Green-Rainbow Party was the only party that fielded a candidate to run against Secretary of State Galvin. Because there was no Republican challenger, GRP candidate Jill Stein was the only person standing between Secretary Galvin and an unopposed reelection. Not that Galvin would take it personally. The Secretary treats all voters fairly, right?