On December 2, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed that it will not hear Virginia’s appeal in Judd v Libertarian Party of Virginia, 13-231. This is the case on the constitutionality of Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators.
Because the Libertarian Party has now definitely won this case, it is likely that a bill will be introduced in the 2014 Virginia legislature to repeal the ban. It is hoped that the Libertarian Party will be able to persuade the legislature to make other ballot access improvements in the same bill. The obvious flaw with Virginia’s ballot access laws is that the vote test for party status is excessive. The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%, but Virginia’s is 10%.
Yeah. Oklahoma’s vote test is the same 10%. It is pretty insane. No alternative party has been able to reach that since Perot. It would be nice to reduce it to 2%.
If the Virginia General Assembly reduces the ballot-status threshold from its current 10 percent — an unlikely prospect under any circumstances — it will probably not reduce it to less than 7 percent, since Robert Sarvis earned 6.6 percent of the vote as the Libertarian candidate for governor in 2013. The legislators will not set a benchmark that can actually be met.