United States Marijuana Party

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The United States Marijuana Party is a political party in the United States founded in 2002. As of April 2016, the party had chapters in 10 states: Kentucky, Colorado, Illinois, Vermont, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Hawaii.[1][2] As of September 2019, it was not a ballot-qualified party.

Background[edit]

Ballot access for political parties[edit]

See also: List of political parties in the United States


As of November 2023, there were at least 53 distinct ballot-qualified political parties in the United States. There were 235 state-level parties.[3] Some parties are recognized in multiple states. For example, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are recognized in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. These two parties account for more than half of the 235 total state-level parties.[4][5][6] Three minor parties were recognized in more than 10 states as of November 2023:

  1. Libertarian Party: 38 states
  2. Green Party: 22 states[7]
  3. Constitution Party: 21 states[8]

Although there are dozens of political parties in the United States, only certain parties qualify to have the names of their candidates for office printed on election ballots. In order to qualify for ballot placement, a party must meet certain requirements that vary from state to state. For example, in some states, a party may have to file a petition in order to qualify for ballot placement. In other states, a party must organize around a candidate for a specific office; that candidate must, in turn, win a percentage of the vote in order for the party to be granted ballot status. In still other states, an aspiring political party must register a certain number of voters.

The number of ballot-qualified political parties fluctuates as parties gain or lose qualified status. In addition, some states distinguish between major parties and minor parties. Specific differences between major and minor parties differ from state to state. For example, in all states, major parties are granted access to primary elections. Some states, however, do not permit minor parties to participate in primary elections. Consequently, minor party candidates in these states can run only in general elections.[4]

The table below lists all ballot-qualified political parties in each state as of November 2023. Click "[show]" to expand the table.[4]

History[edit]

The U.S. Marijuana Party was founded in 2002 by Loretta Nall.[1]

Party values[edit]

As of 2014, the U.S. Marijuana Party's aims were to end marijuana prohibition and secure "the right to use any medication our healthcare providers and we deem fit without government interference."[9]

Recent news[edit]

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'United States Marijuana Party. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

.

  1. 1.0 1.1 Fox News, "Calling All Mrs. Robinsons," October 24, 2006
  2. United States Marijuana Party, "US Marijuana Party Chapters," accessed February 10, 2015
  3. This total does not include parties that have attained ballot status at the municipal level. Only those parties with state-level ballot status are included here.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Jaime Healy-Plotkin, "Research of state election agency websites and email correspondence with state election agencies," November 2023
  5. As of November 2023, there were nine state-level parties that called themselves Independent or Independence parties. For the purposes of this article, these were not tallied when counting the number of distinct ballot-qualified parties in the United States because it is difficult to determine to what extent these various parties are affiliated with one another.
  6. Because Washington utilizes a top-two, nonpartisan primary system, the state does not officially recognize parties. Consequently, only the state's two largest parties, the Democratic and Republican parties, were included in this tally.
  7. This figure includes the D.C. Statehood Green Party, Maine's Green Independent Party, Oregon's Pacific Green Party, and West Virginia's Mountain Party.
  8. This figure includes Nevada's Independent American Party and Michigan's U.S. Taxpayers Party.
  9. Deseret News, "Want to support a third party? Here are your options," January 16, 2014

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