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Cal Newsroom Article Explains Some of the Ways Top-Two System has Injured California’s Minor Parties — No Comments

  1. Great story. The state of minor parties is the state of democracy. If all the parties could ratify some identical text, it’d be the state of real reform proposals.

    Top-two is horrible to and for alternative parties. It is the worst thing about top-two or else top-two is misunderstood as the anti-partisan but really, it’s super bi-partisan.

    A coalition of political minorities; primary opposition to two-party system. Top-two, two-party are limits on the choices.

  2. In 2010, an independent candidate for Secretary of State was required to collect 173,041 signatures to get on the ballot. In 2014, they need 65, a 2662-fold reduction.

    In 2010, a candidate for superintendent of public instruction, regardless of their party affiliation, either had to pay the filing fee of $3022.45 or collect 10,000 in lieu of signatures. This is not changed for 2014.

    The standard that the parties now complain about was set in response to Lubin v Panish. The parties also fail to note that in lieu of signatures and the filing fee offset each other.

    The fundamental problem is that the fee and signature count are determined independently then linked, not that special privileges for minor parties have been eliminated.

    With each signature being worth only $0.26, a candidate might be more cost effective collecting cans that collecting signatures. But under the old regime, the signature of a minor party partisan was worth $17.40. A party could put on a dinner for party members, put a jar our for contributions, let members sign the petitions, and come out ahead.

    A better system would tie the number of signatures to the electorate (say 0.1% of the gubernatorial vote), then make the filing fee in lieu of signatures based on a reasonable collection rate (say 10 minutes/signature at minimum wage or $1.33 per signature).

    While this would increase the fee for statewide office, it would substantially decrease the fee for district office, including county offices.

    10,095 signatures or $13,460 is not an unreasonable amount for statewide office in a state with 35 million persons.

    And an average fee of $336 for the senate or $168 for the assembly is much more reasonable than the current amounts.

  3. Even though the old California independent petition requirement was far too high, independent candidates were still better off under the old system. Under the old system, independent Secretary of State candidate Dan Schnur, whose campaign is well-funded, could have had a guaranteed spot on the general election ballot, because he could afford to hire circulators. Under the old system, he would have had both a Republican and a Democratic opponent on the general election ballot. Therefore, he could theoretically won with only 34% of the vote. Furthermore, under the old system,, because he would have had opponents from both major parties, he would have appeared to the electorate as a genuine independent. As it stands now, if he wins a spot on the November ballot, his opponent will almost surely be a Democrat, and Schnur will be painted as a Republican in disguise. Furthermore, under the old system, he could have had the label “independent”. Under the new law, he is stuck with the “no party preference” label on the ballot.

  4. 1/2 votes x 1/2 gerrymander districts = 1/4 or less control.

    Since there may be 2 D or 2 R in the general election, the minority rule may be even less than 25 percent — due to nonvotes from R or D voters respectively.

    P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.

  5. It is unlikely that Dan Schnur would have run for Secretary of State under the old regime. How many 100s of thousands of dollars would it cost to collect 173,000 signatures?

    When was there an Independent candidate on the ballot for statewide office in California?

    There is nothing intrinsic to the California Constitution that that would deny the use of terms like “Nonpartisan” or “Independent” appearing on the ballot of a NPP voter.

    Do you think the ballot qualification requirements for Superintendent of Public Instruction are fair? Are they more fair fair, less fair, or the same after Proposition 14?

  6. Independent candidates for statewide office in California qualified in 1976 (four of them), 1978, 1980 (two of them), 1988, and 1992. Petitioning is easier in California than in nearly any other state. California is one of only 3 or 4 states in which the state constitution has been interpreted to mean that shopping centers must permit petitioners on their property. California voters are accustomed to being asked for signatures on initiative petitions. In 2011, Americans Elect obtained over 1,600,000 signatures on its party petition, which required 1,030,040 valid signatures. That could not have happened in any other state.

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