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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