Sandy Sanders, Jr., has this op-ed in Style Weekly, Richmond, Virginia’s free weekly newspaper. The op-ed criticizes Virginia for its severe definition of political party, one that polled 10% in a previous election. It also criticizes Virginia for having no procedure whereby a group can transform itself into a qualified party before any particular election. Virginia is one of only eleven states that lack any such procedure.
The op-ed focuses on the fact that in the November 3, 2015 legislative election, over half the races had only one candidate on the ballot.
Earlier this year, bills were introduced in the Virginia legislature to cure some of these problems, but the bills did not pass. HB 1463 would have changed the vote for party status from 10% to 4%, and SB 766 would have lowered the non-presidential statewide petitions from 10,000 to 5,000 signatures. The Virginia legislature has a short session in odd years so it is difficult to pass bills in odd years. But the 2016 session will be a longer session and it will be easier to pass reform bills.