For the period 1970 through 2018, over one-third of all Massachusetts U.S. House elections had only one candidate on the November ballot.  During the same period, no  other state had as many as 25% of its races with only one person on the ballot.

The reason Massachusetts has had so many uncontested races for that office is because it has the nation’s most severe petition requirement to get on a primary ballot.  It requires 2,000 signatures.  No other state has such a high requirement for U.S. House primary ballot access.

Also, Massachusetts has rather severe laws for independent candidates to get on the ballot.  And the state has consistently made the requirements more difficult over the years.  In 1952, the Prohibition Party ran almost a full slate of candidates for U.S. House.  In 1953, in response, the law was amended to make it more difficult for convention parties to run for district office.

In 1973, the legislature eliminated provision for small ballot-qualified parties to nominate by convention, and provided that all qualified parties had to nominate by primary.  This was a severe blow, because the petitions for candidates to get on primary ballots was difficult.

In the 1990’s decade, Massachusetts had three ballot-qualified minor parties at one time or another, the most it had had in any decade since the 1940’s.  This came about because the voters had passed an initiative in 1990, easing the definition of a qualified party.  In 1998 the legislature doubled the number of signatures needed for a small qualified party to place candidates on its primary ballot.

On April 21, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, a Clinton appointee, orally described substantial relief she intends to order for minor party and independent candidates for the Illinois 2020 election.  Candidates will need 10% of the original legal requirement.  The petition deadline is extended from June 22 to August 7.  Signatures can be obtained on a signer’s computer via an electronic signature, although the candidate or party must then print out the results and transport a piece of paper to election officials.  The order is being drafted but does not yet exist on paper.

UPDATE:  here is a new story in the Herald & Review, the daily newspaper for Decatur.

Also, if a minor party was on the ballot in either 2016 or 2018 for an office that is up in 2020, then it is automatically on the ballot for those same offices in 2020.  This means that the Libertarian and Green Parties are now on the ballot in 2020 for President and U.S. Senate with no petition.  Also the Green Party is now on the ballot automatically for two U.S. House seats, the fifth and twelfth districts.  Unfortunately there were no third parties on the ballot in either 2016 or 2018 for any legislative seats.

The case is Libertarian Party of Illinois v Pritzker, n.d., 1:20cv-2112.  Statewide candidates for president and U.S. Senate, other than Libertarians and Greens, will need 2,500 signatures.

The state had said that it could not live with a deadline as late as August 7, but the judge still said she intends to order it.  The minor party petition in Illinois was due in early August in all the years 1931 through 1999.  Before 1931, it was in September, and it was in October from 1891 through 1929.

The basis for the order is that Illinois law requires independent and minor party petitions to circulate between late March and late June, a period of time entirely within the health crisis period.  If Illinois didn’t ban circulating petitions before late March, it would have been in a better legal position.  Before 1985 Illinois minor party and independent candidate petitions could be circulated as early as desired.  UPDATE:  here is a one-page statement from the court saying some relief is being granted, the details of which will be described on paper shortly.

According to this article, the Wisconsin Election Commission, the legislature, and the Governor, have so far shown no interest in doing anything about mandatory ballot access petitions.  Except for independent presidential petitions, all petitions are due June 1, for both the August 11 primary and the general election.

The Wisconsin Election Commission advises candidates to use postal mail to send blank petition forms to potential signers.  Yet the U.S. District Court decision from Michigan of April 20 included a fairly lengthy section explaining why that doesn’t work.

No candidate in Wisconsin needs more than 2,000 signatures, although the petition for a new qualified party needs 10,000 signatures.