West Virginia Delegate Barbara Fleischauer (D-Morgantown) will introduce a bill in the 2009 session of the legislature to lower minor party and independent candidate petitions from 2% of the last vote cast, to 1%.
To bolster the case for the bill, she will use the decision in Barr v Ireland, in which a U.S. District Court upheld the existing law, but acknowledged that West Virginia is tied for having the 2nd-most restrictive law in the nation, for presidential candidates running outside the two major parties. West Virginia is tied with North Carolina. Each of those two states require a petition of 2% of the last vote cast in the preceding presidential election year. The only state that is more restrictive is Oklahoma, which requires a petition of 3% of the last vote cast in the preceding presidential election year. All other states have lower percentage requirements.
Oklahoma has five percent petition requirement for Presidential Electors of a new political party and three percent for ‘Independent’ Electors.
Hopefully, this bill will help in minor parties getting their ballot status.
Frank is right about Oklahoma, although Oklahoma also allows the 3% procedure for unqualified political parties (a procedure that allows the party name).
FYI, Barbara Fleischauer is Bob Bastress’s girlfriend/wife. Mr. Bastress (WVU Law Professor) was the attorney for the Libertarians in the cited Ireland case and had also brought suit four years earlier in state court on behalf of the Libertarians with respect to the even earlier petition signature deadline for gubernatorial candidates (in this case, Simon McClure in 2004)…lost that one as well on th grounds that state election law, good or bad, is cast in stone.
Also, Delegate Fleischauer had introduced this bill earlier this year, along with State Senator Clark Barnes’ bill to extend party ballot access to ANY statewide candidate garnering 1% of vote or a percentage of registered voters, but neither bill got out of committee.
*** Freedom loving West Virginians will need to make LOTS of PHONE CALLS to our state legislators to accomplish this task. We WERE successful at moving the Real ID opposition bill out of committee in February. LET’S GO TEAM!!! ***
Looks like another good opportunity for our parties to work together, Jeff. 🙂
Anyone have any ideas on how an out-of-stater could help?