Fred Brown, incumbent member of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, has filed a lawsuit to remove his only opponent, Christian Motley, from the November 2018 ballot. See this story. The office is non-partisan and each candidate needs 100 valid signatures. Brown says Motley only has 88 valid signatures. A trial court will decide the issue next week.
This example shows that even petition requirements of as few as 100 signatures can sometimes prevent candidates with substantial support from running for office. The nation would be better off if every office had a filing fee option for getting on the ballot.
Cost to collect and check each petition signature ???
How many Jones and Smith candidates via filing fees vs via petitions ???
On the other hand, the challenger claims that the incumbent has not raised any money, while he has amassed a war chest of several thousand dollars. You would in effect permit a candidate to buy a seat.
It is conceivable that the suit could be tossed as not being timely. LFUCG uses Top 2 elections, but cancels the primary if two or fewer candidates file. Thus the primary in May was skipped.
I could not find a source for the requirement of 100 signatures. The LFUCG charter references a section of the Kentucky Revised Statutes that has been repealed. I did find something that said county officers require 100 signatures, and city officers require 2 signatures. LCUFG is sort of a hybrid.
A more reasonable number might be 1/10 of 1% of the previous gubernatorial vote – which would probably be around 8 persons for this office. Rather than a petition, the supporters could appear at the election office
SCOTUS case in 1970s (???) ruled that there must be alternative to filing fees (discrimination against poor candidates).
Likely in BAN database.
Bullock v Carter (1972) and Lubin v Panish (1974).
Bullock v Carter said that you couldn’t force a political party to pay for its own nominating activities if they were mandated by the state. This is not a problem under Top 2.
Note to Demo Rep: In Texas there is no filing fee alternative for Independent candidates, though there is for write-in candidates.
If candidates would qualify by having their supporters appear at the courthouse, state capital, etc., there would be no need for a fee. The election officials would be paid, just like they are for elections.
Time and cost to check those supporters who appear at the courthouse, state capital, etc. ???
Cost for supporters to get to courthouse, etc. vs petition/fee cost ???
@Demo Rep,
It takes perhaps a minute when you present yourself to vote.
How many folks going to CA/TX courthouses for the various offices – Fed / State / local ???
How about those CA/TX poor voters (esp in rural areas) ???
— start walking, hitch a ride to courthouse and back ???
—
See posts — 1 person nomination/issue forms for ballot access – travel only by postal snail folks.
Bullock v Carter did not say that a state couldn’t mandate a party to pay for its own nominating activities if those activities were mandated by the state. Bullock v Carter just protected candidates. That is why Arkansas was still requiring parties to conduct primaries and pay for them itself, years later, and the Republican Party of Arkansas had to sue to change that.
parties in PUBLIC nomination process = factions of PUBLIC Electors-Voters.
ZERO *private* stuff in such PUBLIC process.
See the Texas White Primary cases in SCOTUS.
The recent Top 2 primaries — ALL PUBLIC Electors-Voters nominate (who care enough for the PUBLIC safety to vote).
—
NO primaries.
PR and AppV