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.

Voters' Choice Act

The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition has drafted a Voters' Choice Act (VCA) to address Pennsylvania's electoral problems. PBAC is currently seeking sponsors and supporters for this legislation. This legislation has not yet been introduced in the legislature, and you can help change that. PBAC has hand-delivered the VCA to all legislators' Harrisburg offices and has contacted all legislators' offices by phone. PBAC is asking all legislators to return a questionnaire on their level of support for the VCA.

Download

White paper including the Act -- this is the document in legislators' hands.

Brochure on the Voters' Choice Act -- suitable for handing out to neighbors, etc.

What is the VCA?

The Voters' Choice Act (VCA) will give greater freedom of choice to the Pennsylvania voter by making it much less difficult for independent and third party candidates to get on the November ballot. The VCA changes the way a third party is legally defined. Instead of requiring a third party's existence to be determined by how well a Democrat or Republican did in the last election, under the Voters' Choice Act a third party would be legally recognized once it has at least 0.05% of the total number of voters in Pennsylvania registered in their party. This is the way our neighboring state of Delaware legally defines a third party. Following this model, candidates from third parties, like the two old parties, would have no signature requirement to have their names placed on the November ballot.

As for independent candidates, instead of having to obtain over 67,000 signatures on their nominating petitions in order to appear on the statewide ballot in 2006, independents would only be required to collect the same 2,000 signatures that the candidates from the two old parties need to get into their primary.