On February 8, the Washington State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee passed Substitute HB 1534, which improves ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. Thanks to Ruth Bennett for this news. This Washington state bill is the first bill to improve ballot access that has made any headway in any state’s legislature so far this year, as far as it known.
The House Rules Committee placed HB 1534 on the 2nd Reading Suspension Calendar. If I understand the House Rules correctly, this means it is not subject to amendment by the House. Still nothing that indicates that the version is anything but the committee substitute, which basically permits independent candidates to carry the name of a party on the ballot.
On February 14, HB 1534 (committee substitute) passed the Washington House on 2nd and 3rd readings (91 yeas; 0 nays; 7 excused).
This is still a version that requires separate petitions for each candidate that a minor party may wish to support. In cases where multiple candidates file for the same office with the same party designation, there are procedures for resolving the conflict.
The primary difference from existing law is that it replaces conventions with petitions. In Washington, even independent candidates were nominated by convention, so now instead of gather NNN supporters in one or more meetings; there simply has to be a gathering of NNN signatures on a petition.
The filing date remains in May (except for President/VP in August). This appears to be a residual from when minor party nominees qualified for the blanket primary ballot, where they had to receive 1% of the vote to advance to the general election.
If Washington wins their Top 2 primary case, HB 1534 could simply be modified to provide for qualification to the Top 2 primary ballot.
The legislature is in a 60-day even-year short session, with tight deadlines. There is a February 19th deadline for passage by the originating house, so it might still be the intent to get the bill out of the House (now completed) and over to the Senate where it could be amended to provide for a more-party oriented qualification procedure.