The Washington Secretary of State has waived the petition in lieu of filing fee for the primary, for candidates who can’t afford to pay the fee. See this story.
The new rule doesn’t have any impact on the presidential independent/minor party petition, which is 1,000 signatures due July 25.
i begin to wonder seriously if states got rid of petitioning and fees altogether, permanently whether the ballot would be overly “cluttered” Today there are so many campaign and personal finance reports that have to be filed, that many “frivolous” candidates are simply dissuaded from running because of the paperwork and reporting liabilities and public exposure of personal finances. And, besides, if there is a “cluttered” ballot, the voters are the best and final judges of who is or isn’t a “frivolous” candidate. Isn’t that what democratic elections are all about, anyway?
How many of the trolls/spies/agents/morons with their zillion fake names on BAN would be candidates ???
@WZ,
There is counter-evidence from the California elections for Governor and US Senator, where the petition is nominal, along with a fee. Also recall during the gubernatorial recall there were around candidates.
Some alternatives:
Write-in Ballots, but permit stamps and selling of ballots by voters.
Limit ballots to 10 candidates per office who have most signatures.
Randomly select Scrutineers from among voters. They would select the 10 candidates who would appear on ballot.
@ JR
IMO, California is too big anyway, and their legislature is ridiculously small. Is there another state that has state legislative districts that are bigger than Congressional districts? IMO, any state with more than 5% of the total US population should be divided into new states. California should become at least 3 states, maybe even 4.
Abolish the minority rule USA Senate and EC.
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PR — will divide many States
APPV
TOTSOP