Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed’s office has clarified the intent of his ballot access bills, HB 1534 and SB 5604. They would not require the nominees of unqualified parties, or independent candidates, to run in the primary. That is good news. Unfortunately, the petitions he is proposing require a separate petition for each statewide nominee of an unqualified party. In presidential election years, there can be as many as 8 statewide offices up in Washington state, and the bill would require 8 separate petitions for an unqualified party that wanted to run a full slate of statewide nominees, plus additional petitions for that party’s US House and legislative candidates.
We met about this Saturday, the 27th, and this is a move backward. We had hoped that doing the Nom. Comvemtions for each party was done in, but I guess he is still hoping for that stupid top two primary, to save them from 3rd parties.
We means our 3rd party coalition, a good idea, IMHO. We have parties from the Freedom Socialists to the American Heritage working for the survival of the People’s right to have a choice on the ballot.