Both houses of the Ohio legislature passed comprehensive election law bills last year. The bills are SB 8 and HB 260. Both bills are extremely long and deal with many election law issues.
The Columbus Dispatch has this story, explaining why neither bill has yet passed. The two bills differ. One has the ballot access improvements, and one doesn’t. The Democrats control one house and the Republicans control the other house, and so far the legislators haven’t been able to work the two bills into a single version that is acceptable to both major parties. The article holds out some hope that eventually one of the bills will pass.
The ballot access improvements are needed because the state’s existing law for ballot access for minor parties was ruled unconstitutional in 2006 and no new legislation has ever passed to replace it. While Ohio is in this position, the state has no ability to keep any parties off the ballot if they can show a modicum of support. Parties that have done that in both 2008 and 2010 are the Constitution, Green, Libertarian and Socialist Parties.
Where is that Model Election Law for the party hacks to copy ???
I don’t believe in the concept of a Model Election law for all 50 states. The states are too different for one model law to fit. Half the states have registration by party; half don’t. Some of the states have primaries in the spring; some in the summer; some in the fall. Some states already have fairly good election codes, which don’t need substantial changes. Others are disasters for ballot access, especially Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
California requires 20 times as many signatures to run for Congress compared to Texas. How about putting California on your list?
Those four third parties are legitimate parties. Why not let them stay on the ballot? I’d vote against any new ballot access law if I was in the Ohio state legislature.
Objective measures for comparing California and Texas ballot access were in four issues of the printed BAN in 2005. I used how many candidates actually appear on the ballot, on the average, going back to 1972.
President, average number of candidates on the ballot, California 4.1, Texas 2.1.
Governor/Senator, average number of candidates on the ballot, California 5.53, Texas 3.36.
US House, average number of candidates on the ballot, California 2.99, Texas 2.49
Number of parties on the ballot, average, California 6.2, Texas 3.4.
For president, my comment above should say California 6.1, Texas 4.1.
You are using a party-centric model.