One of the scandals of elections in the United States is that the Democratic and Republican Parties field so few nominees for state legislative posts. This year, there are 5,773 regularly-scheduled state partisan legislative elections. In 2,281 of those elections, either the Democratic Party, or the Republican Party, has no nominee. That means that 39.5% of the legislative races have no Democratic-Republican contest.

This is the worst competitive posture since 2000. The percentage in previous even-numbered years has been: 2006 37.6%; 2004 38.7%; 2002 36.9%; 2000 40.6%; 1998 41.1%; 1996 32.7%; 1994 35.8%; 1992 32.8%; 1990 35.9%; 1988 36.6%.

Of course the major parties ought to be free to decide to skip running candidates in districts in which they feel they can’t win. But, given the large number of districts with no contest between the two major parties, it is infuriating that ballot access laws in many states keep minor parties and independent candidates from contesting legislative seats and giving the voters a choice.