Why you should care
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition in seeking more choices for all of us on Election Day. Current Pennsylvania law makes it difficult for independent and minor party candidates to appear on the ballot — much more difficult than in most other states. The result is less political competition, less political dialog, and fewer choices to vote for in November. The current system is simply not fair and does a great disservice to the ideal of democracy and to the voters. What you can do about it.
The trainwreck of 2006
In 2006, independent and minor party candidates were required to collect over 67,000 valid signatures simply to get on the state-wide ballot in Pennsylvania on Election Day. Legally, Democratic and Republican candidates require no signatures to get on the state-wide ballot, and even the 2,000 signatures required for the Primary Day ballot are ridiculously smaller than the virtually impossible hurdle of 67,000.
The solution
Pennsylvania law needs to be changed by the State Legislature to lower the outrageous signature requirements. The Coalition has drafted a Voters' Choice Act and is seeking sponsorship of it in the General Assembly.
Third-party ballot rules too strict
Editorial
By The Sentinel, October 19, 2005
Many Pennsylvanians are looking forward to next month's election, but a fair number are already looking past this November to the elections in 2006.
That's when third-party and independent candidates for state office face a preposterously high hurdle if they want their names to appear on the ballot. Under current law, anyone not a Republican or Democrat who wishes to run for statewide office must gather signatures equal to 5 percent of the vote total garnered by the highest-polling candidate in the last statewide election.
This is a moving target, since voter interest fluctuates, especially in off-year elections. As it happens, there are no statewide races in 2005, so the standard will be set by the 2004 election of Auditor General Bob Casey, who got the highest number of votes of any Pennsylvania candidate in history -- 3.4 million.
That means independent candidates must file petitions with 67,070 signatures to appear on the ballot for governor or U.S. senator in 2006. The Associated Press points out that in 2002, that number was a comparatively low 21,000 signatures.
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