Kansas Bill that Raise Independent Candidate Petition Requirement Passes House 68-52

On February 22, the Kansas House passed HB 2516 by 68-52. This is the bill that raises the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 5,000 signatures to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote (almost 21,000 signatures). Now the bill goes to the Senate.

Kansas is in the Tenth Circuit. In 1984 the Tenth Circuit ruled in a Wyoming case that states cannot increase ballot access barriers in an election year and expect the new requirement to take effect immediately. The Kansas bill, if passed, will be in violation of that ruling, because it takes effect this year.


Comments

Kansas Bill that Raise Independent Candidate Petition Requirement Passes House 68-52 — 14 Comments

  1. NOOO ELECTION YEAR MENTION IN 14-1 AMDT DP CL.

    ONE MORE 14-1 EP CL VIOLATION.

    TOO MANY CONLAW HACK MORON JUDGES TO COUNT SINCE 1776.

  2. Well, it can’t be that, Johnny. Kennedy has shown that he can sue and win (Utah – technically a settlement), and Richard makes a good point on why he would win and the state would lose. Assuming this Kansas bill applies to presidential candidates.

    The state can try to rely on the “blocking frivolous candidates” argument. However, this is disproven if Kansas still allows and counts write-in votes. Some write-in candidates are serious, and others frivolous. So then, voters can still have their votes counted for frivolous candidates.

    They’d then have to qualify their argument: “Blocking frivolous candidates to avoid voter confusion when looking at the ballot”. In other words, to avoid voters from accidently voting for the wrong person because they got confused with the names.

  3. NOOO BALLOTS/ELECTIONS = NO CONFUSION ???

    SEE OLDE ROMAN EMPIRE — KILLER EMPERORS — SOMETIMES KILLED BY GUARDS – WHO THEN *ELECTED* A NEW KILLER EMPEROR.

  4. AZ, thanks for asking. There would be ballots and elections. In fact, voting would be mandatory.

  5. The simple truth is that most of the states have become one party states. In those states, the outcome is pretty predictable from year to year. Federal elections, both for Congress and President are decided in a handful of “swing” states.

    The US has been here before. Between the Civil War and World War 2, the Northern states were predictably Republican, and the Southern states were predictably Democratic. Essentially the reverse of what they are today. Federal elections were usually decided by narrow margins in “swing” states, which were usually border or Western states.

  6. WZ–

    WORSE EXTREMIST PRIMARIES WITH EACH CYCLE IN ALL STATES — ESP IN NNN2 YEARS AFTER NNN0 CENSUS YEARS.

    NOOO PRIMARIES

    ONE ELECTION DAY

    EQUAL NOM PETS/FILING FEES

  7. The great virtue of our federal system is that people can – and do – move from states in which they are unhappy, to states in which they are more happy. We can help this process by dividing larger, more populous states, into more, smaller states, thereby making it easier for people to move to more newer, friendlier states.

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