H.R. 1, the bill favored by almost all Democrats in Congress, has a provision concerning the income tax returns of presidential candidates. It applies only to the presidential nominees of parties that polled at least 25% of the vote in the last presidential election. It says that the nominees of those parties should submit their income tax returns to the FEC. If a nominee does not do that, then the FEC is authorized to ask the Secretary of the Treasury for that candidate’s tax returns, and to make them public. That part of the bill starts on page 566. It is Title X, the very last part of the bill.

In 2018, the Libertarian Party had candidates for the state legislature on the ballot in all but five states. This was the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had legislative candidates on the ballot in that many states, since 1916. The five states with no Libertarians on the ballot for legislature in 2018 were Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and North Dakota.

This excludes the states that don’t have legislative elections in even years, which are Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia.

All of the 2018 Libertarian candidates had the ballot label “Libertarian” except for the Tennessee candidates, who had “independent.”

The Libertarian Party had legislative candidates in all but six states in 2000, which is the closest any third party had come in previous years.

In 2016, there were eleven states that had legislative elections in which the Libertarians had no legislative candidates: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming. There were 14 such states in 2014; 14 in 2012; 12 in 2010; 15 in 2008; 19 in 2006; 9 in 2004; 7 in 2002; 14 in 1998; and 11 in 1996.

Indiana State Senator Greg Walker has again introduced his bill to ease ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. It is SB 571. It lowers the statewide petition from 2% of the last Secretary of State vote (now 44,934 signatures) to exactly 4,500 signatures. That figure is what candidates need to get themselves on the primary ballot of the major parties, if they are running for President, Governor, or U.S. Senator.

The text of the bill will be available next week. Thanks to Craig Marolf for this news.

No statewide petition in Indiana has succeeded (under the existing 2% law) since 2000. Indiana is one of four states in which Ralph Nader never got on the ballot, even though he placed third in three presidential elections, 2000, 2004, and 2008. The other such states were Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, all of which have eased their ballot access laws since Nader last ran.