Two Minnesota legislators have introduced bills in each house to ease ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. They are Senator Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) and Representative Steve Elkins (D-Bloomington). The bills are SF 752 and HF 708.
Currently Minnesota has a party petition that is so difficult, it has existed since 1913 and yet never been used, at least for statewide party status. It requires a petition of 5% of the last vote cast, which is currently 130,500 signatures. The bill would lower that to exactly 20,000 signatures.
Currently independent candidates may choose a partisan label which will appear on the ballot. Minnesota unqualified parties always use this method to place nominees on the ballot. But except for the presidential petition, the independent petition must be completed in two weeks. The bill changes the petitioning period to 60 days. The bill retains the 2,000-signature requirement for statewide office and the 1,000-signature requirement for U.S. House. But it lowers the State Senate petition from 500 signatures to 400 signatures, and the State House petition from 500 to 200. In Minnesota, State Senate districts have twice the population of State House districts.
Currently a party becomes qualified, or remains qualified, if it polls at least 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. The bill lowers that to 1%. If it became law, the Independence Party and the Libertarian Party would be qualified, because they each had a statewide nominee last year who got over 1%, but under 5%.
The bill allows the independent petition to be circulated on paper that is eight and one-half inches by eleven inches. Currently the petitions must be on legal size paper. The bill provides that in special elections, the normal number of signatures is cut in half, due to the shorter period for collecting signatures. The bill slightly eases the independent presidential petition deadline, from 77 to 71 days before the general election. It eases the non-presidential independent petition from June to August.
The bill provides protection for parties to exclude any candidate from using the party’s label, unless the party lists the individual as a bona fide member. Minnesota does not have voter registration forms that ask applicants to choose a party. Under current law, anyone who collects the needed signatures on an independent petition can choose a label of an existing unqualified party, whether that party accepts that individual as a member or not.
