On September 11, the California legislature passed AB 469 by 60-11. It lowers the number of signatures for statewide office, for candidates unwilling or unable to pay the filing fee, from 10,000 signatures to 7,000. It lowers the number for State Senate and U.S. House from 3,000 to 2,000. It lowers the number for Assembly from 1,500 to 1,000.

These petitions need not be completed. If they are only partially completed, then there is a proportional decrease in the filing fee. The California filing fees are higher than the fees of most states. For statewide office the fee is 2% of the office’s annual salary; for district office, 1%.

The bill now goes to Governor Jerry Brown. It also eliminates the ability of in lieu of petitions to be supplemented if the original petition doesn’t have enough signatures to completely eliminate the fee, but it makes it legal to start circulating these petitions earlier than under the existing law. The bill received a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature, so that it can take effect immediately instead of January 1, 2018.

Ballot access laws for U.S. House are harsher than they are for any other office. This is ironic, considering that the founding fathers expected the U.S. House to be the most democratic branch of the federal government.

In four states, it has been over fifty years since both the Republican and Democratic Parties ran a candidate in each district in that state. The four states, with the last year in which both major parties had a candidate in each district, are: Florida 1926; Louisiana 1902; Massachusetts 1950; and Texas 1964.

As to third parties, Massachusetts has the worst record. No party, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, has run a full slate since 1890, when the Prohibition Party did so. Also, in Georgia and Texas, no third party has run a full slate since 1894, when the Peoples Party did so. In modern times the Texas Libertarian Party would have run a full slate, except that it always chose never to run against Ron Paul, so it has never run a full slate.

The case pending in U.S. District Court over whether the Michigan legislature violated the U.S. Constitution when it repealed the straight-ticket device is likely to be decided by a federal jury. The trial is set to begin February 6, 2018, at 9 a.m. Discovery must be completed by September 29, 2017. The case is Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson, e.d., 2:16cv-11844.