Virginia elected all its legislators on November 7, 2023. Democrats kept majority control of the Senate and took control of the House. This might make it possible for a bill to pass next year, easing the strict definition of a qualified party. Existing law defines a qualified party as one that polled at least 10% for a statewide race in either of the last two elections.
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are the only states that have not had a qualified third party since before 1998 (and in Georgia, there have been ballot-qualified third parties that were only on the ballot for statewide office, not district office).
In the recent past, Virginia Democratic legislators have sponsored bills to ease the Virginia definition of a party, but those bills have not passed due to Republican opposition.
VA MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDERS SINCE 1618 — A MERE 405 YEARS
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/oregon-gop-senators-boycotted-legislature-213650775.html
Oregon GOP senators who boycotted Legislature file federal lawsuit in new effort to seek reelection
Hopefully, a better ballot access bill will come out of Virginia. I suspect that the GOP is largely opposed because of the Libertarian Party?
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/08/michigan-redistricting-trial-detroit-maps/71505177007/
Michigan redistricting trial concludes, judges to decide fate of Detroit-area maps

Clara Hendrickson
Detroit Free Press
KALAMAZOO — Capping off a federal trial Wednesday over Detroit-area state legislative districts drawn by a citizen-led redistricting commission, a lawyer representing the group of voters suing the mappers said that there exists no other way to explain why districts that run through Michigan’s largest city – which is majority-Black – look the way they do other than race.
Attorney John Bursch said the commission’s metro Detroit districts look like “bacon strips.”
Long and skinny, they pair parts of Detroit with wealthy, white suburbs.
“There’s no explanation for these shapes other than race,” Bursh told the three-judge panel hearing the case in a closing argument.
The commission drew state legislative maps that eliminated majority-Black districts and reduced the number of those districts in the state House.
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MICH G ROT – MERELY SINCE 1837 AS A STATE
BACON DISTS = VOTERS COOKED
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https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition
50 STATES- ANTI-DEMOCRACY G ROT MAPS
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Gerry’s salamander was in the 19th century, not the 17th.
If the dummy rats pass a bill, wouldn’t Youngkin just veto it?
Freep is fake news.
Their “nonpartisan” commissions tend to be communist.
A quick search reveals that Democrats gained the majority in both houses in Virginia after the 2019 election. If easing the definition of a party is a priority for the Democrats, I do not see it.
The Libertarian candidates for the lower house got hardly any votes in 2019 and 2021. Independents and write-ins got more but still not much. If there is a significant threat to the Republicans for easing the definition of a party, I do not see it.
The damage demon rats do every time they gain a majority anywhere far outweighs any marginal harm or benefit of 5,000 vs 10,000 signatures to qualify a party or how many such parties qualify.