1. This is an excellent op-ed by Ann Menasche!

2. Didn’t the Louisiana House of Representatives just elect an independent as Speaker Pro Tempore?

   Proposition 14 would reduce the number of signatures to run for statewide office as an independent in California from over 176,000 to 65.

   The last independent candidate to qualify for the ballot* for a statewide office in California, such as Governor or Secretary of State was in 1978. No voter in California under the age of 49 has ever had that opportunity to even consider voting for such an independent candidate.

   I was going to correct the claim that Menasche was the Green Party candidate, rather than a candidate for the Green Party nomination, but then remembered it is impossible for a write-in candidate to qualify in the primary of a smaller party.

3. President is a statewide race. The last independent statewide candidate to qualify in California was Ross Perot in 1992.

   Prop. 60, passed by the voters of California in November 2004, says that a party has the right to have whoever got the most votes in its primary appear on the general election ballot as its nominee. Prop. 14 would wreck Prop. 60. If Prop. 60 can survive, it can be used to force the state to allow minor parties nominate candidates by write-ins in their own primaries.

4. President is not a statewide office. Because presidential elections are national in scope, candidates are often willing to put an effort into qualifying in all states.

   The legislative intent of Proposition 60 was to confuse the voters so that they would vote down Proposition 62. And obviously it didn’t do anything to reduce the barrier for independent candidates.

   Proposition 60 will still apply to presidential primaries – and arguably require that the primaries be direct nominating primaries.

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