On October 2, the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee did not vote on SB 193, the bill that revises ballot access for new and minor parties. The Committee wants to take more time before making a decision.

If Ohio legislators want to be truly creative, they should simply abolish mandatory petitions to create a new party. As recently as 1948, twelve states didn’t require new or small parties to submit any petition to get on the ballot. Instead, these twelve states simply required parties to demonstrate that they had an organization in the state. Florida, Mississippi, and Vermont still use that model today. Also, there are a growing number of states that use registration data, instead of petitions, to determine which parties are on the ballot. That idea would be difficult for Ohio to implement, however, because Ohio voter registration forms don’t ask the applicant to choose a party.

The twelve states that, in 1948, only required a group to be organized were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia (for president only), Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. No state in 1948 had a crowded general election ballot. No state had more than seven presidential candidates on its ballot.

Petitions cost governments money. On the average, election administrators must pay $1 for each signature checked.

Ohio is also free to permit candidates who petition for a place on the general election ballot to choose a partisan label, that would be printed on the ballot next to the candidate’s name. Ohio permitted labels for candidates who used the independent procedure, between 1891 and 1947. The current law says that candidates who use the independent procedure must choose either to have no label at all, or “no party candidate” or “other party candidate.” Thanks to Kevin Knedler for the news about the committee.

Janet Munda, Supervisor of Elections and Registration for Cherokee County, Georgia, will speak on October 15 about Georgia’s ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates. The event is sponsored by the county Libertarian Party, and will be at the Best Western, conference room, 705 Transit Avenue, Canton. Canton is north of Atlanta.

The Georgia record for ballot access is very bad. The laws have prevented any minor party candidates from appearing on the ballot (for regularly-scheduled elections) for U.S. House ever since they were written in 1943. This is shocking, but the mainstream media of Georgia has consistently been uninterested in publicizing this. There has never been any other state in U.S. history which had such a long record of two-party monopoly for any type of federal elected office.

Ohio was defeated in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968, because it had kept all minor party and independent candidates off the ballot for President for the previous 19 years. But a 19-year deficit is obviously not nearly bad as a 71-year record. Thanks to Don Webb for this news.

The Huffington Post has this column by Rob Richie, advocating bigger U.S. House of Representatives districts that would each elect three (or possibly more) members. Also, the column advocates the rules used for the Illinois House of Representatives 1870-1980, in which parties are free to decide whether to run one, two, or three nominees in districts like this. Then, voters would be permitted to use cumulative voting. A voter could give all three of his or her votes to a single candidate, or give one vote to each of three candidates, or give one-and-one-half votes to each of two candidates.

This may sound complicated, but it would not require a constitutional amendment. Nor would it require changes to vote-counting machines. But t would require Congress to repeal the 1967 law that requires all states to use single-member districts for U.S. House. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.