On August 29, a judge on the 7th circuit issued in order in Stevo v Keith, the Illinois independent candidate ballot access case for U.S. House elections. The judge asked attorneys for the state to tell him when ballots will be printed. It is encouraging that the 7th circuit is actively looking at the case.
The case challenges Illinois law, which requires exactly 5,000 signatures in years that end in “2”, but which requires approximately 10,000 signatures in other election law years.
In Minnesota it about 2,000 signatures for an Independent/minor party candidate to be listed on the ballot — with the major problem being a rather narrow two week window.
We have not had a overly cluttered ballot. The number of major parties tends to hover around three or four, with some minor parties who field a handful of candidates.
I cannot imagine how a State can argue that they need a non-major party candidate to collect 5,0000 or 10,000 signatures simply to gain ballot access.
It just amazes me how far we seem to have divorced elections from the 1st and 14th Amendments.
I wonder if the ‘year ending in 2’ law is due to the fact that the district boundaries may not be known until late due to the census redistricting.
Re: #2. It is actually not a “year ending in 2” law, but rather an election following redistricting. The ordinary petition standards are based on number of votes cast in the particular congressional district at the previous election. There is no valid comparison following redistricting – especially in a State like Illinois which loses a district or two after each census, and in any case, boundaries would be shifted. Other states avoid the problem by basing the percentage on some other race such as the gubernatorial race, which permits at least estimates of past turnout for new district boundaries.
Based on past elections, 5,000 is actually not bad for a conservative estimate of turnout, though recent elections have tended to have higher turnout and district sizes have been increasing as well. In a few instances, 5,000 would have been more than 5%.
There doesn’t appear to be any relationship between the number of signatures required and the number of independent and 3rd party candidates that qualify for the ballot. Since turnout is much greater in presidential election years than mid-term elections, the signature requirement oscillates. The requirements for 2008 are less than they will be in 2010.