On March 29, the Idaho House passed HB 275, 65-2. It makes many election law changes, including two ballot access improvements. It lowers the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate from 1% of the last presidential vote (about 6,000 signatures) to exactly 1,000. It also says that out-of-state circulators may circulate an independent presidential candidate petition.

Assuming this bill also passes the Senate, Idaho will have the easiest procedure for an independent presidential candidate that it has ever had. Before 1977 Idaho had no procedure for an independent presidential candidate to get on the ballot. Idaho is one of the states that independent presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy sued, to force them to create procedures for independent presidential candidates. McCarthy won all of these lawsuits. However, most states that he sued reacted by passing procedures that were very difficult. For instance, New Mexico passed a procedure in 1977 requiring independent presidential candidates to submit a petition of 3% of the last vote, whereas at the time minor parties only needed 100 signatures. Texas passed a procedure requiring independent presidential candidates to get approximately 40% more signatures than independent candidates for other statewide office need. Oklahoma passed a procedure requiring an independent presidential candidate to submit a petition of 3% of the last presidential vote, whereas independent candidates for other office didn’t need any signatures. Idaho passed a procedure requiring an independent presidential candidate to submit 1% of the last presidential vote, when other statewide independent candidates only needed 1,000 signatures.