The Washington Post has this editorial, criticizing Virginia because, at the November 8, 2011 legislative elections, there were only 27 State House races with both a Democrat and a Republican on the ballot, out of 100 seats.
Unfortunately, the editorial does not tell its readers that Virginia is currently arguing in federal court that if must preserve its ballot access requirement that no one can circulate a petition to get someone on the ballot if the circulator doesn’t live in the district. Virginia’s Attorney General argues that without that restriction, the ballot would be too crowded. Virginia requires petitions, both for general election access by independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, and also for a candidate to get on a primary ballot.
The lawsuit, Lux v Judd, is pending in U.S. District Court in front of a Judge who already upheld the restriction last year. Then the case went to the Fourth Circuit, which sent it back and said to rehear the case. The Fourth Circuit also said that the argument that the restriction is needed to show that the candidate has support is not a valid reason to uphold the law. But the Fourth Circuit gave the state a chance to come up with some new arguments.
Another reason there are so few candidates on the Virginia ballot is because of the state’s restrictive definition of “political party.” The Virginia law requires a group to poll at least 10% for a statewide race, to be a qualified party. Virginia’s 10% requirement is tied for third most difficult in the nation, after Pennsylvania’s 15% registration test, and Alabama’s 20% vote test. The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%. Except for the Reform Party 1995 through 1997, no party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties has been ballot-qualified in Virginia in the last 40 years. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
