Seattle holds city council elections this year. Washington state election law says that candidates get on the ballot by filing fee, or by petition in lieu of filing fee. The Seattle filing fee for city council is $1,199.76; or candidates can submit 1,200 valid signatures.
Amanda Helmick chose to submit a petition instead of a filing fee. She submitted 1,318 signatures, but only 1,191 were considered valid. She was willing to pay $9 filing fee to make up for the 9 missing signatures, but Washington state law does not allow candidates to submit a mixture of signatures and money. See this story.
Richard, In West Virginia, it is four signatures per dollar of the filing fee. Just wondering what the national average is on this as we would like to have legislation introduced here to reduce it to the 1:1 ratio – which has been used in our 2010 and 2011 special elections.
Good question. I don’t have that information handy.
This illustrates a number of pitfalls of basing filing fees on salaries. City councilors in Seattle make just shy of $120,000 per year, and the filing fee is 1% of that ($1200). The number of In lieu of signatures is calculated at one signature per dollar. Salaries are likely to increase at a rate similar to inflation, while the size of the city not much at all. If the salary doubles, the fee doubles, the in lieu of signatures doubles, but the number of potential signers remains about the same.
Seattle is switching from at large elections to district elections (7 from districts, 2 at large). So for the district candidates, the number of potential signers is 1/7th of in the past, and 1/7th of that for citywide candidates. But all councilors make the same salary and pay the same filing fee.
There were about 180,000 votes in the 2013 election. For citywide candidates 1200/180000 is about 0.7%. For the average district candidate it is about 4.3%, and for some districts it is likely over 5%.
A better solution would be to base a petition on the number of voters. Let’s say 1/5 of 1%. Citywide this would be 360, and 50 or so for district candidates. And then base the filing fee on a reasonable collection rate (say 10 minutes at minimum wage). So the citywide candidate would pay $600 or collect 360 signatures, and the district candidate could pay $85 or collect 50 signatures.
Or perhaps there could be a minimum petition that must be collected by the candidate themselves (larger of 50, or 50%).
That would make it for citywide candidates 50 signaturesm plus 310 signatures of $510. For district candidates 25 signatures, plus 25 signatures or $42.
Alternatively greatly expand the council, and don’t expect it to be full time work.
In 2010, Prop. 2 lowered the number of signatures
from 2,700 to 450. Of course, I voted for it.
A candidate can get 450 sigs by him or herself.
30 days times 15 sigs each day.
In NY, a book of registered voters by AD be party is $15.