On March 15, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee introduced HB 275, which is another of the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bills. Among the many election law changes is a provision lowering the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate from 1% of the last presidential vote (currently 6,552 signatures) to exactly 1,000 signatures.

No Green Party presidential nominee has ever been on the ballot in Idaho. However, assuming this bill passes, it seems likely that whomever the Green Party nominates for President in 2012 will be able to comply with this requirement. The bill has no direct impact on the Libertarian or Constitution Parties, because they are already ballot-qualified parties.