On November 13, Pennsylvania State Senator Kim Ward (R-Greensburg) said she will co-sponsor SB 195, the ballot access reform bill. The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition has been working diligently to increase the number of co-sponsors for this bill. When it was introduced in January 2013 it had five sponsors.

The bill lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates to match the number needed for Democrats and Republicans to get on primary ballots. For minor parties, it says a party is qualified, and entitled to nominate by convention, if it has approximately 4,000 registered members. If the bill were enacted, that would put the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties on the general election ballot with no petitioning. That part of the bill is modeled on Delaware’s law.