All the briefs have now been filed in Daien v Ysursa, in U.S. District Court in Idaho. The case challenges Idaho’s ban on out-of-state petition circulators. It also challenges Idaho’s law that requires an independent presidential candidate to collect six times as many signatures as are needed for a statewide independent candidate for office other than president. Here is Daien’s brief; here is the State’s brief. Both were filed on October 2.
The plaintiff, Donald Daien, lives in Arizona and he wants to be able to petition for an independent or minor party presidential candidate in 2012 who shares his political views. In the past, Daien has been a volunteer petitioner in many states for Ralph Nader.
If Top 2 is approved in California, it would seem hard for California to justify 3000 times as many signatures for independent presidential candidates as for gubernatorial and other statewide candidates.
No, that doesn’t follow logically. The state would just argue that independent presidential candidates are guaranteed a spot on the November ballot (assuming the petition is valid), whereas people running for Congress or state office would need approximately 25% to 30% support to get on the November ballot.
If top-two is implemented in California, there will probably continue to be an average of six candidates on the November ballot for president, but for Congress and state office there would never be more than two candidates on the November ballot.
The petition is to get on the ballot of the first election where ALL voters may cast a ballot for that office.