The Pennsylvania House cannot vote on the ballot access bill, HB 342, until late Monday morning, June 27. The House is not sitting on Friday, June 24, nor is it sitting on the weekend.
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This Boston Globe article about the Libertarian presidential campaign points out that even though the Libertarian Party is now on the ballot in 33 states, it is not on the ballot in any of the New England states yet except Vermont. This is the first time the Boston Globe has reported that New England has stricter ballot access laws than the remainder of the country.
The Libertarian Party is very close to being on in Maine.
On the evening of June 23, the Pennsylvania Senate amended HB 342 and passed it unanimously. It improves ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. Existing law requires signatures equal to 2% of the winning candidate’s vote, which, for statewide office this year, is 21,775 valid signatures. The bill sets a ceiling for all office of 5,000 signatures.
The bill was amended in a hurry, because the state had promised U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Stengel that if he held off on ruling whether the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties should be put on the ballot automatically, that it was very likely the legislature would ease the ballot access laws in some way. The original bill was a very minor election law bill that had nothing to do with minor party or independent candidates.
The bill is very likely to pass the House again soon, and the Governor has indicated he will sign it as soon as it reaches him. If passed, it goes into effect immediately.
The bill is faulty because it requires a county distribution requirement for minor party and independent candidates for statewide state office. It requires signatures of at least 250 signatures from each of ten counties. All county distribution requirements for general election candidate petitions have long ago been declared unconstitutional. Those rulings were based on a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case, Moore v Ogilvie. There is no county distribution requirement currently in Pennsylvania law for general election petitions, but there is a county distribution requirement for primary candidates running for state office.
The bill requires 2,500 signatures for general election candidate petitions for U.S. House; 1,250 for State Senate; and 750 for State Representative.
On June 23, U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin, a Clinton appointee, said that Cleveland’s plans for demonstrations at the Republican presidential convention next month is incompatible with the First Amendment. He ordered mediation to come up with a different plan. The problem with the city’s plan is that it keeps demonstrations too far away from the convention hall. See this story. The case is Citizens for Trump v City of Cleveland, n.d., 1:16cv-1465. The lawsuit had been filed by the ACLU on June 14, 2016. The plaintiffs are political diverse and include both pro-Trump and anti-Trump groups.
On Wednesday evening, June 22, CNN provided 75 minutes of air time to Gary Johnson and William Weld, members of the Libertarian national ticket. Some audience members were able to ask them questions. See this story.