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.
