For several years, Pennsylvania ballot access activists, operating as the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Committee, have been trying to persuade the legislature to pass the ballot access reform bill that has repeatedly been introduced. For the first time, State Senator Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster) has agreed to meet with the Coalition. Senator Smucker is chair of the State Government Committee, the Senate committee that handles election law bills. The meeting will be in the Senator’s district office in Lancaster on October 28 at 10 a.m. Attendance is by invitation, because only eight activists will be permitted to participate in the meeting.

The bill, SB 195 by Senator Mike Folmer and others, has three co-sponsors who are on that Committee. Also, three other Senators on that Committee have recommended that a hearing be held. The committee has eleven members, so a majority of the Committee desire the hearing. The bill would reduce the number of signatures needed by independent candidates to the same number needed for major party members to get on their party’s primary ballot. For minor parties, the bill would use registration data instead of petitions to determine which parties are on the ballot. Smaller qualified parties would nominate by convention.