Many election law bills have been introduced in the new Virginia legislative session, but there seem to be no bills to ease ballot access, unless one counts the two bills already mentioned to permit write-ins in primaries. But there is a bill to make primary ballot access more difficult. Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) has introduced SB 244, which establishes registration by party. It also seems to make it more difficult for parties to remain ballot-qualified, and it seems to make it more difficult for candidates to get on primary ballots, although the bill does not affect the presidential primary.

The bill seems to make it more difficult for a party to remain ballot-qualified by saying that qualified parties can’t maintain their status unless they have registration membership of 15% of the state registration. Then it makes ballot access more difficult for candidates in primaries, by requiring them to submit petitions of 1% of the number of registered voters in that party. Although the bill is not perfectly clear, it implies that only party members could sign a primary petition.

Virginia now has 5,138,037 registered voters. If even one-third of them register as Republicans, a statewide petition to get on the Republican primary ballot would then need 17,126 signatures, and probably only registered Republicans could sign. Current law requires 10,000 signatures for any statewide primary petition, and any registered voter can sign.

The deadline for bills to be introduced in 2012 has already passed. It was 5 p.m. on January 13.