California lets candidates for congress and state partisan office pay to have statements in pamphlets that are mailed by the government to all registered voters. Statewide candidate statements go in the Voters Pamphlet, which is prepared by the Secretary of State. District candidate statements go in the sample ballot pamphlet, which is mailed out by county election officials.

State Senator Ben Allen has introduced SB 935, which requires the Secretary of State to set a maximum amount that can be charged for these statements. It is expected that this would result in less expensive charges. Currently county election offices set the rates for district candidates.

On March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Independent Party v Padilla, 17-1200. This is the case over whether California had the authority to prevent any party from coming into existence if it is named “Independent Party.”

The Arizona requirement for independent candidate petitions is 3% of the number of people who are registered to vote, but who are not registered as members of any qualified party. However, any registered voter may sign for an independent candidate.

The 3% calculation is based on the registration data of March 1 of an election year. The Secretary of State recently released registration data for March 1, so it is now possible to know the exact independent petition requirement. For statewide office it is 36,697 signatures.

The requirement is irrational, because Arizona requires 23,041 signatures for a new party. If the purpose of ballot access petitions is to keep the ballot uncrowded, it makes no sense for Arizona to require almost 60% more signatures for a single statewide independent than for an entire new party. A new party in Arizona could run someone for all the partisan offices in the state, thus making a far greater impact on the general election ballot than a single independent candidate would make.

Rocky De La Fuente is currently suing Arizona over the number of signatures for an independent candidate. The lawsuit has moved slowly. Discovery is underway.