The California petition requirement for independent presidential candidates in 2024 will be 219,403 signatures, unless the law is changed. No independent candidate in U.S. history has ever overcome an independent petition requirement as high as that.
The requirement is 1% of the number of registered voters as of the October 24, 2022 registration total.
California only allows 105 days to collect these signatures. By contrast, California allows unlimited time for either a petition drive, or a registration drive, to qualify a new party. No one has overcome the independent petition requirement in California since 1992.
The petition must contain the names and addresses of 54 presidential elector candidates, which takes up a lot of room on the petition form, and which makes it impossible to circulate the petition until the presidential candidate has chosen his or her elector candidates.
I have asked my State Senator, Scott Wiener, to introduce a bill in 2023 to ease the procedure, but so far he has not responded.
Two issues related to the CA ballot are related to this: 1.) A bill to implement “Instant Run-Off/Ranked-Choice Voting” would be a much better effort then advocating for “political party-less” candidates (since the current CA “Top Two” ballot format leaves all CA voters a choice between the equivalent of TWO LETHAL STRAINS OF COVID, and 2.) ridding CA of “dead weight” political parties” (e.g. Peace and Freedom and Green parties-that cannot even get 1% of voter registrations in CA!) would also improve ballot choices. Additionally, there was a bill sponsored by State Senator Umberg in 2019 (that Newsom VETOED), that would have resulted in the American Independent Party being eliminated as a “recognized” CA political party (given its MIS-leading name!). Re-introducing THAT idea would also be a good thing. P.S. Look at the current “15 day report of Voter Registration in CA”-“No Party Preference” voters have ALMOST as many registrants as the damned Republicans do (NPP’s are in a SOLID 3rd place!).
The name is not misleading. It is appropriately evocative of the Party policies.
It is very rare for any third party to have registration as high as 1% of the total, except for parties with “Independent” or “Independence” in their names. Massachusetts has a 1% registration membership law, since 1990, and no one has ever met it. Maryland has had a 1% registration membership law since 1998 and no one has ever met it. Anyone who thinks that a party shouldn’t be on the ballot unless it has 1% registration is probably not aware of how voters behave, relative to registering in a third party. Louisiana and Colorado each require a party to have 1,000 registered members to be qualified, and that is a far better law.
Governor Newsom vetoed a bill to make it easier for parties to get on the ballot in 2021.
But Richard Winger voted for and loves Newsom!
I have never voted for Gavin Newsom for Governor.
Newsome is a no good communist POS.