Yesterday, Kentucky HB141 passed the House unanimously and went to the Senate. It makes two minor improvements in the ballot access laws. It deletes the requirement that minor party and independent presidential candidates must file a declaration of candidacy on April 1 of an election year.
Also, it lets minor party and independent presidential candidate petitions circulate as early as the candidate or group wishes. Since Kentucky permits stand-ins on presidential petitions, this change lets minor parties circulate their presidential petitions in the year before a presidential election, if they wish to. Under the existing law, they may not begin until November of the year before the election.
Sheesh…
Even the previous law was better than what we have in Texas. We can’t begin petitions until AFTER the Primary election… And then we only have 75 days… and we have to get 1% of all the votes cast in the last gubernatorial race (which, in Texas, is HUGE). Of course, they have to be registered voters who didn’t vote in the primary of either of the Two Names of the One Big Party.
It remains unclear in law what action by a citizen should legally constitute “affiliation” with a political organization. Does a citizen affiliate by casting a ballot with straight party votes for all offices in a general election? Does a citizen “disaffilate” by splitting their ticket and voting for even one candidate other than a straight ticket? Or is political affiliation require something more than simply voting for candidates? In states that require a political affiliation check-off, is that conclusive? There are a myriad of questions. However, the notion of affilliation may really be legally irelevant. The principle of ‘one person, one vote’ does not necessarily imply any declaration of affiliation for an orderly administration of an election. If the act of voting in a party’s primary is not construed by law as “affiliation”, then laws such as those in Texas must find some other ‘reasonable’ act to define affiliation. What if there is no single act of affiliation which is a ‘reasonable’ basis for restricting voter choice in any subsequent election or election process, e.g., signing a petition.
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