The California deadline for filing as a write-in candidate has closed. The only presidential candidate who qualified is Peter Sonski, nominee of the American Solidarity Party. Califoria recently made it even more difficult to qualify as a declared write-in for president, by requiring not only 54 presidential elector candidates, but also 54 alternate presidential elector candidates. All 108 individuals must fill out a notarized declaration of candidacy.

This is the first time since the write-in procedure has existed in California that only one presidential candidate has qualified. California has had the system in place since 1951. California was the first state to have a declaration of write-in procedure.

The law is discriminatory, because presidential elector candidates of qualified parties need not fill out any declaration of candidacy. The state party leaders submit the list to the Secretary of State, without any evidence that the individuals on the list even know they have been nominated.

NEW YORK WORST IN THE NATION FOR VOTER CHOICE

On September 27, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to put Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the New York ballot.  As a result, New York voters are the only voters in the nation with only two presidential candidates on the ballot.

In the last 40 years, it has been very rare for any state to have such a restricted ballot in a presidential election.  Except for Oklahoma in 2004, 2008, and 2012, no other state in the period 1985-2024 has given voters a presidential ballot with only two choices.

The Oklahoma legislature has substantially eased that state’s ballot access laws since 2012, and now there are always at least five presidential candidates on in that state.

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