On February 18, Alabama HB 72 passed the House Constitution and Elections Committee. The Committee amended the bill, so now the only change it makes is to lower the independent petition for statewide office from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5% of the last gubernatorial vote.
The bill originally lowered the petition for all non-presidential independents, but Majority Leader Ken Guin (D-Carbon Hill) complained that 1.5% for lower house of the legislature would be only 150 signatures, which he felt was too easy (his arithmetic was somewhat faulty; he should have said 180 signatures). So the Committee amended the bill to apply only to non-presidential statewide independents. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for this news. If the bill passes, the non-presidential statewide independent petition requirement in 2010 will be 18,757 signatures.
This is complete BS. It will still take more signatures (for a “minor party” or independent candidate) to get on the ballot for US House than it takes for an independent Presidential candidate.
Yes, but the pending lawsuit Shugart v Chapman might take care of that problem.
Hopefully, Richard will be correct and we will get a favorable ruling in Shugart v Chapman. While I’m still an advocate of Filing fee options, this is better than nothing – assuming it passes the full House and Senate. We have to accept what they will give us this time and come back year after year with new bills to make the statutes fairer. Legislation that will give ballot position by either (1) signatures on petitions, (2) filing fees, or (3) a State Convention attended by a specified number of Delegates should be the long term objective. Be sure that everyone drops Representative Cam Ward an email of thanks for what he has accomplished. His email address is camjulward@aol.com
Richard:
Perhaps, I haven’t been paying as close attention to the details of HB 72 as I should have been. Does this bill apply ONLY to “independent” candidates or does it also include 3rd party candidates? The wording of your most recent post sort of made me think it only applies to independent candidates.
Unfortunately, it only applies to independent candidates. But if it passes, that will be a sign that a bill next year to expand it to unqualified parties would probably also pass.