Georgia State Senator Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) has introduced SB 112. It would eliminate mandatory ballot access petitions for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. If this bill passed, the Georgia general election ballot still wouldn’t be crowded, because independent and minor party candidates pay high filing fees (Georgia has the second highest filing fees of any state, 3% of the annual salary).
The only petitions would be for persons who allege they cannot afford to pay the filing fee.
Florida gets along with a system like this, and has ever since 1999. Thanks to Amanda Swafford for this news.
What would be the filing fee for President?
You ask a very good question. Currently Georgia has no filing fee for presidential candidates to get on a presidential primary ballot. The major parties simply tell the Secretary of State which presidential candidates to list in those parties’ presidential primaries. So that is something that would need to be worked out. Perhaps there would be no fee for general election presidential candidates, but 7,500 signatures might be needed. That is the number that the US District Court chose last year when he invalidated the 50,000-signature petition.