On February 8, six Georgia state representatives introduced HB 949, which lowers the number of signatures needed for minor party and independent candidates somewhat. Current law requires a petition of 1% of the registered voters for statewide office, and 5% for district and county office. The bill keeps these percentages, but changes the base to the vote cast for president in the last election. The reduction would be approximately 25%.

The sponsors are: (1) Mark Hamilton (R-Cumming); (2) Rusty Kidd (I-Milledgeville); (3) Edward Lindsey (R-Brookhaven); (4) Alisha Morgan (D-Austell); (5) Jay Powell (R-Camilla); (6) Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Atlanta). This bill follows the recommendations of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Elections Advisory Commission, and the Secretary of State himself supports the bill. Thanks to Garland Favorito for this news.

At the November 2010 election for Governor of Maine, Eliot Cutler, an independent candidate, was almost elected. The Republican nominee, Paul LePage, won with 38.1% of the vote. Cutler was a strong second, with 36.4%. Some time after the election, the Maine Commission on Government Ethics & Elections Practices filed a complaint against an anonymous blog, which carried derogatory information about Cutler. The Commission took the position that blogs that carry content involving a campaign for state office must report contributions and expenses above a certain threshold of spending, and the anonymous blogger had not done so.

The blogger then filed a lawsuit in state court, in defense of anonymous blogging in campaigns. The case, Bailey v State of Maine Commission, was then moved to federal court, where discovery has been underway. According to this story, the blogger may have been working for one of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Rosa Scarcelli. Some evidence suggests that not only did she hire the blogger to set up the anti-Cutler web page, she also helped the campaign of another independent gubernatorial candidate, Shawn Moody. Moody polled 5.02% of the general election vote, and it is somewhat plausible that if he had not campaigned, most of his votes would have gone to independent candidate Cutler.

Scarcelli did not become the Democratic nominee. She placed third in the Democratic primary. The eventual Democratic nominee, Elizabeth Mitchell, placed third in the general election with only 19.1% of the vote. The Republican winner, Paul LePage, won the Republican primary with only 37.4% of the vote and he won the general election, as noted above, with only 38.1% of the vote. It seems likely that if either Instant Runoff Voting, or Approval Voting, had been used in Maine, the outcome would have been different.

Georgia’s only independent state legislator, Rusty Kidd, has already submitted his petition to get on the November 2012 ballot so that he can run for re-election. He needed the signatures of 5% of the registered voters. See this story, which says that because a handful of signers also signed for a spouse or for an adult child, the State Election Board is investigating his petition.

In 2010, Kidd was the only person on the ballot for any of the 236 seats in the Georgia legislature who was not a Democratic or a Republican nominee. In Georgia, no Republican or Democrat ever needs to collect any signatures to be on a primary ballot. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.