The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, which has been working for several years to improve ballot access for minor party and independent candidates, is focusing on persuading State Senator Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster) to hold hearings on the ballot access bill, SB 195, by Senator Mike Folmer. The bill has enough support on the Senate State Government Committee that it is plausible it would pass that committee, if only Senator Smucker will hear the bill. Smucker is the chairman of that committee.

Pennsylvania and California are virtually the only states in which the legislatures are still in session, and which ballot access improvement bills are pending. Legislatures in almost all states have gone home for the year.