BALLOT LABELS


January 23, 2007		2007-R-0129
BALLOT LABELS

By: Sandra Norman-Eady, Chief Attorney

You asked several follow-up questions based on information provided in OLR Report 2006-R-0801 on ballot positions. Specifically, you wanted to know when Connecticut's current law on ballot positions was enacted and the process for making the determination prior to its enactment.

Connecticut's current law on the order of parties on the ballot label has been in effect for almost 31 years. In 1976, the secretary of the state requested the General Assembly to take away the authority that office had possessed since 1941 to designate the order of parties on the ballot label. The General Assembly obliged and passed PA 76-159, which codified the order in statute (CGS § 9-249a).

When bringing out the bill (SB 16) in the Senate and the House, Senator Schwartz and Representative Lowden, respectively, noted that the bill would formalize the placement process and cited the problem the bill fixed. The bill established for the first time a process for placing parties that had no gubernatorial candidates in the previous election.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously on April 13, 1976 after placing it on the consent calendar. On a roll call vote, the House passed it unanimously on April 20, 1976.

1. The party whose candidate for governor received the highest number of votes in the last-preceding election;

2. Other parties who had candidates for governor in the last-preceding election, in descending order, according to the number of votes each candidate received;

3. Minor parties who had no candidate for governor in the last-preceding election;

4. Petitioning candidates with party designation whose names are contained in petitions approved by the secretary of the state; and

5. Petitioning candidates with no party designation whose names are contained in petitions approved by the secretary of the state.

Before CGS § 9-249a became law, the secretary of the state had to choose the order in which political parties were arranged on the voting machine, giving precedence to the party whose candidate for governor received the most votes at the last gubernatorial election and listing other parties in descending order based on the votes their candidates received for that office.