Connecticut Representative Timothy Bowles (D-Preston) has introduced HB 6098, to lower the statewide minor party and independent candidate petition from 7,500 signatures to 5,000 signatures. The Green Party is responsible for the existence of this bill.

The Green Party tried and failed to get its presidential nominees on the Connecticut ballot in both 2008 and 2012; also the Libertarians failed to get on for President in 2008. Connecticut petitioning, like petitioning in all the New England states, is more difficult than petitioning in other parts of the country, because the signatures must first be taken to the town clerks for checking and then collected and submitted to the state. Therefore, the existing 7,500 requirement is more difficult than it appears. Thanks to Ken Krayeske for this news.

On February 13, the Ninth Circuit will hear Chamness v Maldonado, 11-56303, in Pasadena, California. This is the lawsuit that challenges California’s ban on the ballot label “independent” in elections for Congress and partisan state office. California does not ban “independent” for presidential independent candidates, but the implementing language for the top-two system oddly does ban that word for other office.

The State Supreme Courts of Massachusetts and Minnesota have both ruled in the past that “independent” is such an important term for independent candidates, that states cannot ban it from appearing on the ballot. Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court in 2011 had upheld the law.

The hearing will be at the Courthouse at 125 South Grand Avenue, in a residential part of western Pasadena. The judges will be Marsha Berzon, Paul Watford, and James Carr, a visiting U.S. District Court Judge from Ohio.