North Dakota is the only state in which there are no candidates on the November 2012 ballot for state legislature, other than the Democratic and Republican Party nominees.
Even though there are four qualified parties on the ballot in North Dakota, qualified parties in that state cannot run legislative candidates unless approximately 10% to 15% of all the primary voters choose to vote in that party’s primary. North Dakota has open primaries, so a voter is free to vote in any party’s primary, but the idea that such a large share of voters would ever choose a minor primary ballot is unrealistic. In no state with open primaries in the last forty years is there any instance in any state when more than 6% of the state’s primary voters chose a minor party primary ballot.
North Dakota also has very stringent petition requirements for independent candidates for the legislature. They need a petition signed by 2% of the population of the district, including children and aliens. The typical state legislative district in North Dakota only has 6,700 voters in a presidential general election, and in the typical district an independent for the legislature needs 250 signatures. If a minor party nominee does decide to qualify using the independent procedure, he or she is not permitted to have a ballot label other than “independent.”
Even Georgia this year has one independent on the ballot for state legislature. He is Rusty Kidd. He is an incumbent running for re-election, and under a unique Georgia law, independent candidates don’t need a petition if they were elected as an independent in the last regularly-scheduled election.
well that sucks.
Top 2 Open Primary would resolve these issues.
More voters are willing to vote for 3rd party candidates than vote in a 3rd party primary, which typically is entirely uncontested.
And the petition requirement for independents would have to be the same as for all candidates.
#2, your comments are consistently illogical when they presume that the only alternative to bad ballot access laws is top-two.
The simple solution to North Dakota’s bad law is to repeal the minimum vote test in the primary. No other state has such a minimum vote test for party candidates who are on the primary ballot (although Hawaii has one for independent candidates).
@2 top two = fascism. wise up.
#3 Your solution would still deny the right of all voters to vote for their qualified candidate of choice in all elections.
While it is unrealistic that voters would choose the primary ballot of a 3rd party, it is not unrealistic that they would vote for a candidate affiliated with a 3rd party.
The solution is to let voters vote for the candidate, not to discourage them from voting for that candidate.