The New Hampshire House Election Law Committee will hear testimony on two bills to ease the definition of “political party”, on January 21, Tuesday. Current law defines “party” as a group that got 4% for U.S. Senator or Governor at the last election. HB 1497 lowers that to 1%, and HB 1322 lowers it to 3%.

The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%. New Hampshire is one of only three states that has not had any ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, at any time since November 1996. The other two such states are New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Virginia, there has been no ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties since November 1997, when the Reform Party went off the ballot. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the news about the hearing.

If you live in a state with ballot access problems, consider asking a state legislator to introduce a bill to ease the problem. States with very bad ballot access laws, in which there is no bill pending to improve them, include Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.